News archive 2009

Industrial Impact Fellowship award

23 Jul 2009, PR 154/09

Dr Mark Ian Christie from the Centre for Integrative Biomedicine has been awarded an Industrial Impact Fellowship by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).



The £310,000 award for the Fellowship will support Dr Christie’s role as a four-year part-time programme manager with specific scientific, pharmaceutical and biotech-sector knowledge, responsible for increasing the economic value of the research and training activities of the Centre for Integrative Biomedicine (CIB).

Dr Christie’s goal is to build sustainable collaborative funding for the CIB and to extend opportunities to the School of Biomedical Sciences. Initially, his work will focus on the two key priorities of partnership and education, expanding the Centre’s contacts with Small to Medium Enterprises and biotech companies in the UK and Europe.

The King’s College London Industrial Impact Fellowship in Drug Discovery', the first of its kind to be awarded by the BBSRC, will be based at the CIB led by Professor Sue Brain. The CIB was established at King’s in 2007 following the award of a BBSRC capacity building grant to support high quality research and training in integrative mammalian biology. The Fellowship will start in Jan 2010.

Dr Christie: ‘I’m delighted with the award of the Fellowship as this is a great opportunity to help the Centre build a sustainable network of partnerships with Pharma and Biotech. Research and training in integrative biology are essential, but declining; so drug discovery skills and the capabilities of the CIB add significant value to industry'.

Boosting skills

Biomedical research in Pharmacology requires an understanding of how drugs exert their effects in complex mammalian systems, a drug discovery discipline essential to the successful translation of new medicines from basic research into the clinic. Surveys published by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries in the UK and the British Pharmacological Society have identified a critical lack of pre-clinical integrative biology skills in the UK workforce and a decline in the quantity and quality of graduates in core disciplines such as drug metabolism, pharmacokinetic modelling and translational medicine. Research councils including the BBSRC are now investing in this area in an attempt to reverse this decline and build Integrative Mammalian Biology Centres across the UK, including King’s.

The Industrial Impact Fellowship is one of 16 new BBSRC Fellowships awarded to researchers from across the bioscience field. The Fellowships, lasting from three to five years, will allow researchers to concentrate exclusively on conducting world-class research to tackle serious scientific questions.

Dr Celia Caulcott, Director, Innovation and Skills for BBSRC, said: ‘We are excited to be awarding these Fellowships which give scientists the freedom to submerge themselves in their science and offer an opportunity to learn new skills and develop innovative ideas without being distracted by funding worries. Awards such as these help build a robust research base, placing UK scientists as world leaders and ultimately benefiting society as a whole.’



Notes to editors

BBSRC
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences. Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £450 million in a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution to the quality of life for UK citizens and supports a number of important industrial stakeholders including the agriculture, food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. BBSRC carries out its mission by funding internationally competitive research, providing training in the biosciences, fostering opportunities for knowledge transfer and innovation and promoting interaction with the public and other stakeholders on issues of scientific interest in universities, centres and institutes.

The Babraham Institute, Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Food Research, John Innes Centre and Rothamsted Research are Institutes of BBSRC. The Institutes conduct long-term, mission-oriented research using specialist facilities. They have strong interactions with industry, Government departments and other end-users of their research.
For more information see: www.bbsrc.ac.uk

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2008) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.



Further information
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