Babrahams New Biomedical Research Facility Opened

A new biomedical research unit has been was opened at the Babraham Institute by Lord Drayson (pictured above), Minister for Science and Innovation. The £22million Bio - logical Support Unit (BSU) will help further the UK’s capacity in basic biomedical research to investigate the mechanisms behind normal cellular functions and to understand how, over lifetime, their failure may cause disease. This includes studying responses to infections and processes governing healthy ageing. Discoveries at Babraham have given insight into the basis of conditions like hypertension, heart failure, cancer, autoimmunity and neurode - generative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease.

It is the translation of this knowledge that will lead to innovative approaches for therapeutic strategies to tackle healthcare challenges. Speaking about the opening, Science and Innovation Minister Lord Drayson said: “Britain is a world leader in Life Sciences and the Government is proud of the pioneering work of our scientists and researchers. This stateof- the-art facility will be vital, increasing the likelihood of scientific breakthroughs whilst ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare.”

Babraham’s Director, Professor Michael Wakelam explained: “Using mouse models of human disease is revealing insights into how the immune, nervous and cardiovascular systems develop and the importance of certain genes in human development, disease and ageing. Babraham’s ground-breaking work on cell signalling – understanding how cells communicate with each other and cellular responses to hormones – has paved the way for novel therapeutic targets and treatment pathways for immunity, inflammation, cancer and heart disease. The new facility will enable our scientists to remain at the forefront of globally-competitive biomedical research and enhance bioscience in our region.”