Centre gets a £3.5m boost

A NEW medical research centre with world-class teaching facilities is set to be created at the Western General Hospital thanks to a £3.5 million funding award.

It will allow researchers at Edinburgh University to support research in the emerging discipline of systems medicine.

Systems medicine is revolutionising the way researchers understand and treat common diseases, by combining expertise in chemistry, physics, computer science, mathematics, genetics and medicine.

Professor Nick Hastie, director of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, said: "This iconic new building will be vital for our goal to identify pathways underlying disease and to use this information for clinical benefit."