Dolly team link-up offers hope of end to human ills

Published on Tuesday 1 April 2008 22:11

AN ALLIANCE between the centre which created Dolly the cloned sheep and Edinburgh University's vet school could help prevent mad cow disease and its spread to humans, it was claimed yesterday.

The link between the Roslin Institute and the Royal Dick Vet School could also help find treatments for osteoporosis, arthritis and Alzheimer's disease, according to experts behind the partnership.

A 100 million investment in the partnership will see the Roslin Institute almost double in size as it becomes part of the university. And recruitment over the next few years will see the institute's staff double to around 500.

As part of its expansion, the institute will move to a 58.5 million building next to the new vet school development at Easter Bush, Midlothian, planned for completion in 2010.

Professor David Hume, director of the Roslin Institute, said the move could benefit human and animal health.

He said: "There are a number of similar diseases found in sheep and variant forms of BSE which affect cattle and sheep, goats and even cats.

"Cats also get a disease very similar to Alzheimer's in humans; by understanding how it works, we can learn more about degenerative diseases."

He said becoming part of the university, with access to its facilities, would allow the institute to work on a bigger scale.

It would also allow the centre to expand its research beyond agricultural stock to pets.

He said: "As well as making better lives for production animals and making them more productive, we will be looking at diseases in pets.

"Many of the diseases which affect our pets are similar to the diseases which affect us, so the work we do can transmit directly into human medicine."

The institute's work on osteoporosis in farmed chickens, which is caused by unnatural continual laying, could also help people.

He said: "If we can reduce the impact of that problem in poultry, there would be a large commercial outcome, but we would also be able to look at ways to treat human osteoporosis."

The Roslin Institute, which has an international reputation for its work in transgenics and animal science, will benefit from 40 million of research funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council over the next five years.

Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, principal of Edinburgh University, described the move as a great step forward.

He said: "Both organisations are renowned internationally for their research and such a union will only serve to enhance and build on that."

Research at Roslin includes efforts to prevent and treat animal diseases such as BSE and scrapie, and work on viruses and bacteria.

It aims to aid understanding of how pathogens move between species and look at food safety issues and genetic mechanisms of health and disease in animals, which can, in turn, enhance human medicine.

The institute also focuses on animal growth, reproduction and development, welfare of animals within their environment, potential improvements in the care and productivity of livestock and diseases in companion animals.

Historic reputation in life sciences

SCOTLAND has developed an international reputation as a leading force in life sciences and a distinguished record in medical innovation.

From Sir Joseph Lister, who pioneered the use of antiseptics in surgery in the 19th century, to Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin in 1928, and the Roslin Institute which produced the first cloned sheep, Dolly, in 1996, the country has a proven scientific record.

Scottish universities have also conducted groundbreaking work in discovering and developing drugs, as well as in stem-cell research. More medical research is conducted per capita in Scotland than elsewhere in Europe, and 20 per cent of all money spent on clinical research in the UK is spent in Scotland.