Editor's comment: Lessons in life science
8 Oct 2014
The UK life sciences sector has a great reason to be buoyant this week as the University of Bristol opened the doors of its new multi-functional facility.
Opening a 200-capacity laboratory, equipped with the latest technology and teaching facilities should be considered a giant leap forward in the advancement of the UK life sciences sector.
And of course, it doesn’t hurt if Sir David Attenborough takes charge of proceedings either.
“The UK life sciences sector is buoyant…and seems to have been for some time now
Fortunately, that is exactly what the University of Bristol (UOB) has achieved this week, which is something it has been shouting about it…and deservedly so.
The UK life sciences sector is buoyant at the moment, and seems to have been for some time now.
The government recognised this in July when it appointed George Freeman as the first ever UK Life Sciences minister - a role in which Freeman looks to have hit the ground running.
For example, last week the government announced a £125 million fund to help support the training and development of 1,250 PhD students at research parks and life sciences institutions across the UK.
Likewise, a report published by the UK BioIndustry Association (UKBA) yesterday found that the UK remains the largest bioscience cluster in Europe, with reports suggesting capital raised in the UK life sciences sector in 2014 amounts to around £734 million.
Clearly, however, huge sums of money and the promise of superbly trained PhD students only equates to so much - the wider community needs to feel the benefit of this expenditure or else it may rapidly lose interest.
Fortunately, more than 450 new products were developed in the UK in 2013, the UKBA report says.
And this year, the trend is no different.
Researchers at the University of Manchester have this week published evidence of a new drug discovery technique that could dramatically improve the speed at which safe and effective medicines can be made available.
It is this kind of ingenuity that is propelling the UK life sciences sector to the front of the pack, and with any luck, and a lot of good science, that is where it will stay.
