New Glasgow science research hub is bringing together academia, industry, and healthcare providers

Kadans Science Partner, which was a keynote partner in November’s The Scotsman Life Sciences Conference, is fostering innovation in Glasgow. Here Katie Nelson, Head of Leasing, outlines the work they are doing, in partnership with Living Laboratory.

Precision medicine is a new generation of healthcare delivery which signifies a movement away from a one-size-fits-all approach to medical care, tailoring medical diagnosis and treatment to the individual characteristics of patients. Through the development of cutting-edge tools and innovations such as medical imaging, genomics and artificial intelligence, precision medicine can be used to help treat people quickly and more successfully whilst avoiding unnecessary side effects from treatments that may not be effective.

Collaboration and robust connections between academia, industry, and healthcare providers are essential to allow such groundbreaking tools and innovations to become a reality.

In Glasgow, a city with a centuries-old legacy of innovation, such connections are now bringing precision medicine to the next level.

Katie Nelson

In 2020, the University of Glasgow’s Living Laboratory for Precision Medicine received £38 million funding from the UK government toward the creation of new infrastructures and assets to facilitate collaborations in precision medicine. Building on the existing expertise, leadership, and clinical infrastructure surrounding the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the Living Laboratory fosters a vibrant ecosystem which supports the development, refinement and clinical evaluation of innovative solutions and approaches to healthcare.

New hub in Glasgow

The different needs of life sciences companies, spanning specialised laboratory facilities to data labs and office space, can make it difficult to house experts in the same location to catalyse creativity. To address this, the Living Laboratory programme is working with Kadans Science Partner to deliver the new Health Innovation Hub (HiH). HiH combines state-of-the-art laboratory and office space under one roof, fostering collaboration and creativity in a single, connected location.

The Health Innovation Hub is located within the Glasgow Riverside Innovation District (GRID), a partnership between the University of Glasgow, Scottish Enterprise and Glasgow City Council. Due for completion in 2025, HiH will provide technical space for life science and health businesses that want to be part of Glasgow's thriving healthcare innovation community.

Located within a short distance of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, the Health Innovation Hub will include a café and collaboration space designed to foster connections between local health and life science companies and the wider community. This inclusive environment will encourage collaboration and facilitate the delivery of tangible health and economic benefits to the local area.

Tackling challenges with new tech

With collaboration and flexibility at the heart of the design, HiH will also be home to the Living Laboratory’s Digital Health Validation Lab (DHVL), which enhances the evaluation and validation of digital health technologies for clinical use, accelerating their adoption into clinical practice to better tackle healthcare challenges.

By providing specialist services throughout the product development lifecycle, the Digital Health Validation Lab supports innovators to demonstrate that their solutions are technically robust, clinically impactful, and economically viable. The services offered are constantly evolving to ensure innovators can access the most appropriate type of validation aligned with their needs – ranging from developing and delivering comprehensive clinical studies to conducting patient and clinician focus groups.

Precision medicine is a rapidly growing field, but clearer pathways to clinical impact are needed to unlock its full potential and deliver on its promise. Thanks to its close connections with many precision medicine experts in academia, the NHS and industry, the Health Innovation Hub is uniquely positioned to address these challenges and drive pioneering solutions to some of today’s most urgent healthcare issues.

To find out more click here