Twenty-First Century Challenges
Explore some of the challenges researchers in the College of Science and Engineering are working to address.
From tackling environmental issues such as food, water and energy security, to the new innovative methods of producing drugs, solving the challenges facing us in the 21st century requires experts coming together, often at the interface of subjects, to find new solutions.
Rehabilitation
The University's work in rehabilitation technology aims to improve health and quality of life by helping restore or improve our ability to carry out everyday tasks. The Division of Biomedical Engineering has a vision of using sensors and sensory systems for the care of patients with spinal cord injuries and stroke, to help restore functionality and wellbeing.
Our imaginative programme is based on the restoration of motor functions using robotics and the brain computer interface (transmitting signals from the brain via a computer to stimulate the muscle groups of the limbs). The programme extends beyond the control of muscles for walking and into day-to-day spinal injury problems associated with pressure sores as well as the control of bladder, bowel and respiratory functions.
We want to develop simple, user-friendly, cost-effective wireless technology on platforms developed in the gaming industry to enable therapeutic applications on smart phones, for use by the individual in their own home. The work will also impact on the developing world, where life expectancy after entering a wheelchair is less than two years. Developing low-cost sensory systems coupled with actuators will help to alleviate this suffering and societal burden.
Support our work in Engineering or contact us to find out more about supporting our work in rehabilitation.
Drug discovery
Previously the exclusive preserve of pharmaceutical companies, the identification and validation of drug-like chemicals that have the potential to develop into new medicines is a challenge the University of Glasgow has embraced actively.
From new approaches to the treatment of cancer, via novel insights into conditions as wide ranging as psychotic disease, heart failure and diabetes, to strategies to tackle parasitic diseases that ravage emerging regions of the world, we link outstanding basic science with deep clinical insight.
Identification of compounds that alter the function of target proteins or pathways highlighted in this way, are underpinned by extensive infrastructure and equipment investment in centres including the Glasgow Polyomics Facility and the Translational Research Centre.
Support our work in Chemistry.
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Renewable energy
Fossil fuel is running out, carbon dioxide emissions continue to soar and the need for energy is increasing dramatically. These issues are perhaps some of the most pressing for humanity today.
In Glasgow we are leading an international research initiative, “Glasgow Solar Fuels”, which aims to generate and develop the most advanced technology for the production of solar fuels stemming from an integrative approach to solar energy harvesting, water splitting and carbon dioxide fixation. By working towards carbon dioxide activation rather than just carbon dioxide capture and storage, we can imagine a closed carbon cycle where tomorrow’s sunlight is used to replace the carbon fuel burnt today.
The groups of Lee Cronin and Richard Cogdell, with collaborators in Glasgow, elsewhere in the UK, and internationally, are developing three routes to solve this problem using (i) synthetic biology, (ii) hybrid synthetic biology and inorganic devices, (iii) artificial photo and electro-catalytic systems. By aiming at photosynthesis and beyond we wish not only to use sunlight but also wind energy to produce new chemical fuels that take the fossil out of the fuel.
Contact us to find out more about supporting our work in renewable energy.
Water security
One of the key growing challenges facing humankind at a global scale over the next few decades is that of access to enough clean and safe water. This not just a matter of various climate change scenarios affecting global water supply, but also of increased demand from a growing world population. Demands from that population will increase as living standards rise in some parts of the world.
The significant inequities which already exist at a global scale will continue to widen unless action is taken now. At Glasgow we are approaching this challenge within an interdisciplinary framework, bringing together the skillsets of both physical and social scientists to provide us with more integrated solutions which meet the needs of society in general.
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Support our work in Geographical and Earth Sciences
Inorganic biology
Where did life come from? Is life abundant in the Universe? Can biology be based upon an alternative chemistry set? Is matter evolvable? These are perhaps some of the most profound questions facing humankind. Technologically, the development of new routes to ‘inorganic-biology’ would constitute a revolution in the materials world mirroring that of synthetic biology today.
In Glasgow we are aiming to develop new inorganic-living-technologies that can be harnessed to convert solar energy, clean up pollution, sense in the urban environment, and also model complex chemical systems. The use of inorganic-robots for medical diagnostics including cell-by-cell repair and imaging seems like science fiction but is a very real possible outcome of this research.
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Food security
National governments across the planet have recognised the challenge of food security for their populations. We have seen escalating world food prices over the last 5-10 years which have put increased pressure on consumers, and especially those living in the global south. However, any response that we make to this has to be interdisciplinary in nature. To blame food insecurity solely on climate change scenarios focuses only on a small part of the problem, and there needs to be a much broader approach adopted.
Here at the University of Glasgow, we are engaging across the disciplines, with plant scientists, vets, medics, nutritionalists, geographers, earth scientists, political scientists, economists, among others, collaborating with each other to develop novel and deeper ways of thinking about this challenge which is in the here and now.
Contact us to find out more about supporting our work in food security.
Support our work in Geographical and Earth Sciences