Introducing Professor Andrew Tobin
Tell us about yourself
I arrived in Glasgow in 2016 after more than 20 years at the University of Leicester with the aim to establish the Centre for Translational Pharmacology with Professor Graeme Milligan, which we did. I quickly became involved with the design of the ARC, moving on to be a co-sponsor responsible for the building design and delivery. This was extremely exciting and exposed me to a whole new world of construction and design. This was going on whilst securing funding for our neuroscience programme focused on Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia, our lung programme on inflammatory airway disease and the malaria programme where we launched our biotech company Keltic Pharma Therapeutics.
How would you describe your research interests and current work?
My current work is focused on understanding biological systems associated with human diseases. Using this information, we can work out how best to make new medicines. One example is Alzheimer's disease where we use models of neurodegeneration to understand how the disease progresses and then use new drug-like molecules to treat the memory loss and slow the disease in our models. We then work with colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry to help design drugs based on our research.
What would you most like people to know about you?
We are focused on translating our basic research programmes aimed at understanding fundamental aspects of biology to programmes aimed at drug discovery and the design of new medicines. I am 100% committed to the success of the ARC and to driving new ways of conducting interdisciplinary research based on co-operation and collegiality whilst addressing some of the world's most challenging research questions.
What do you like most about working in the ARC?
The mix and enthusiasm of the research disciplines, the positive atmosphere, the excellent support staff and the design of the building that speaks of a new way of working together.
I emphasise that the ARC is more than a building - it is an idea. The building represents a physical space to deliver new ways of working and collaborating - a place of genuine experimentation. The good practices and approaches that are incubated and developed here can then be used across the university and who knows, maybe the world!
This is the vision of the ARC.
