Research helps the aged

£20 million to fight virtual crime and treat our ageing population

Fighting virtual crime, treating an ageing population, and turning research into commercial enterprises, will be the focus of a £20 million investment announced today by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

This new investment will create two new centres in areas where world-class scientific breakthroughs have already been achieved. These ‘Innovation and Knowledge Centres’ (IKCs) will mix business knowledge with the most up-to-date research to harness the full potential of emerging technologies – ensuring the UK is first to develop this cutting-edge research.

The two new centres will be based at Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Leeds.  Belfast’s new centre will work to secure our information architecture, and safeguard the trustworthiness of information stored electronically, including countering malicious ‘cyber-attack’.  The University of Leeds Centre will work on regenerative techniques and technologies to treat the common ailments of an ageing population.

The University of Leeds IKC will focus on healthcare innovation, in particular the emerging field of regenerative therapies.  The centre will pioneer physical and biological treatments to help patients deal with a variety of ailments that will affect an active, but ageing population.

Researchers are working on using emerging novel technologies in biological scaffolds, nano-biomaterials and self-assembling peptides to enhance and accelerate the regeneration of tissues by harnessing the power of endogenous stem cells.

Applications for the research are numerous, with clear opportunities in treating cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as aiding those with musculoskeletal disease.  The team are also working on a range of longer-lasting hip replacements.

For the full release go to the EPSRC website at http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/PressReleases/%C2%A320Million.htm