Press releases
Pupils get hands-on with the CVR
For the past six years staff at Glasgow Science Centre, working in partnership with scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR), have been delivering a series of practical workshops on DNA technology to Advanced Higher Biology pupils. Hundreds of pupils continue to attend from across Scotland and enjoy the opportunity to learn modern molecular biology techniques as part of a hands-on workshop at Glasgow Science Centre.
Read the full article in the Nexxus Scotland, Autumn 2011 newsletter.
Professor Michael Malim to give the 2011 Sir Michael Stoker CVR Award lecture
17 May 2011
We are delighted to announce that Prof. Michael Malim, Kings College, London will give the 2011 Sir Michael Stoker CVR Award Lecture on Wednesday 1st of June, Western Lecture Theatre, Gilmorehill.
Professor Malim received his DPhil in Biochemistry from Oxford University in 1987, and was then a post-doctoral fellow at Duke University in North Carolina before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. After nine years in Philadelphia, Professor Malim returned to the U.K. to assume his current position as Professor and Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases. He received an Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Scientist Award in 2001, was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2003, a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2005 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2007. His laboratory utilises molecular genetic, cultured cell, biochemical, structural, bioinformatic and cohort-based methodologies to study the biological principles that underpin HIV replication and pathogenesis (AIDS).
For further details see: 2011 CVR Award Lecture
10,000 Hepatitis C patients could hold the key to better treatment
1 February 2011
The Medical Research Foundation, an independent registered charity established by the Medical Research Council (MRC), has donated nearly £2 million to establish a clinical database of 10,000 patients infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV). This will enable a UK-wide network of researchers to find new ways to tackle the deadly infection.
While there has been considerable progress in the scientific understanding of the disease in recent years, it is currently extremely difficult to track effectively the spread of HCV and to understand the biological roots of the illness.
Dr John McLauchlan will lead the project at the newly-established Medical Research Council - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in partnership with Prof Will Irving at Nottingham University. Patients will be recruited from clinical centres across the UK currently providing care to HCV patients. The initiative will create HCV Research UK, a consortium of clinicians, academics and healthcare professionals, which aims to promote collaborative research into HCV infection across the UK.
The lack of strategic surveillance of the disease in the UK has also made it harder for doctors to determine why some patients can develop symptoms as soon as they are infected, while others only go onto develop cirrhosis of the liver after many years. By collecting and analysing clinical samples taken from patients, the project will also help researchers examine why certain patients fail to respond to treatment.
At least 250,000 people in the UK are thought to be infected with the blood-borne virus, which can cause severe liver damage in up to 20 per cent of patients. HCV is ten times easier to contract than HIV, with prisoners and drug users particularly vulnerable to infection.
Dr John McLauchlan at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research says:
“With Hepatitis C rates continuing to rise and place an increasing strain on healthcare resources, it’s crucial that we attack this disease on as many fronts as possible. By creating a well-structured resource, we hope that it will stimulate both clinical and fundamental research into HCV infection in the UK and form the basis for many future studies.”
Glasgow's Centre for Virus Research receives £4.8 million
The Medical Research Council - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research has been awarded £4.8million from the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation, it was announced today, Thursday 1 July.
Research programmes at the CVR will tackle questions about viruses at all levels from the fine details of virus structure to the spread of viruses in human and animal populations. It will combine the expertise of the existing MRC Virology Unit in Glasgow and the University's Institute of Comparative Medicine. The latest grant is part of a wider £30m investment package in large-scale university infrastructure projects throughout the UK, courtesy of the Wellcome-Wolfson Capital Awards initiative. The scheme is intended to facilitate internationally competitive, leading-edge biomedical research in a way that would not otherwise be possible. The projects that have been funded include both new buildings and refurbishment.
The award from the CVR was lead by the newly appointed Director of the CVR, Professor Massimo Palmarini, and from Prof Jim Neil. Prof. Palmarini said: "We are absolutely thrilled to receive this award. It is an incredibly exciting time for Virology research in Glasgow, and indeed in Scotland as a whole. This award will help us to shape our vision for the CVR and ultimately, achieve our goals. "I would like to thank the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation for the funding. I would also like to extend my gratitude to my colleague Professor Jim Neil and to several colleagues within the CVR who have been instrumental in our grant application."
Last July the Medical Research Council and the University announced that the MRC is to invest £28 million over five years to develop the Centre for Virus Research. The CVR will be located in a new building on the University's Garscube Campus which will enable researchers based there to share expertise, build upon existing collaborations and strengthen virus research capability in the UK overall.
"World-class science needs to be supported by world-class infrastructure, which requires significant investment," says Sir Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust. "The Capital Awards partnership between the Wellcome Trust and the Wolfson Foundation will provide an important injection of cash into our universities at a time when they face uncertainty about future capital funding."
"The programme attracted a strikingly high standard of applications and we are delighted to be funding such exceptional projects," says Paul Ramsbottom, Executive Secretary of the Wolfson Foundation. "It is also a great pleasure to be working again with the Wellcome Trust, and the partnership is of particular importance when universities are facing challenging financial circumstances."