US firm moves into Dundee

AN AMERICAN biotechnology company has announced plans to invest £3 million to establish a base in Dundee, its first outside the United States.

The investment announced by Keith Brown, the Scottish minister for skills and lifelong learning, is a major boost for the city's life sciences sector.

Stemgent is to form a new company, Ubiquigent.

Mr Brown said: "The world-class talent, skills and technology within the Scills (Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling] unit at the University of Dundee is undoubtedly a huge factor in this move."

Scills is the world's first research unit dedicated to the study of "protein ubiquitylation", a process that regulates almost all aspects of cell life. Abnormalities in the process are a cause of cancer as well as autoimmune diseases.