A RESEARCH centre which could help save the lives of millions of sufferers of diabetes and cancer across the world was officially opened at Dundee University yesterday.

The £20 million Sir James Black centre will eventually provide posts for 300 scientists and continue the work of Dundee’s “citadel of science,” the Wellcome Trust Biocentre, under professors Sir Philip Cohen and Mike Ferguson.

Named after former university chancellor and Nobel Prize-winner Sir James Black, the centre was partly funded by a major campaign led by Dundee-born actor Brian Cox, himself a diabetes-sufferer, along with professors Cohen and Ferguson.

The addition of the centre to existing facilities means Dundee has a larger medical research complex than the National Institute for Medical Research in London and is already helping to reverse the “brain drain” by attracting scientists from America to work in Dundee.

Yesterday’s launch will further enhance the city’s reputation as a world-class centre of scientific research.

Staff began moving into the new building last August and already more than 200 researchers are in place.

The centre, which will also carry out research into tropical diseases, was officially opened by South African scientist Professor Sydney Brenner, a Nobel laureate and a legendary figure in genetics.

Prof Brenner, who is to receive an honorary doctorate from the university today, was the 2002 winner of the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine with Sir John Sulston and Dr Robert Horvitz.

“We are delighted to be able to name this building after our former chancellor and Nobel Prize-winner Sir James Black ... and we are honoured to have Nobel Prize-winner Professor Sydney Brenner join us for the opening,” said principal Sir Alan Langlands.

“Both men are icons of British science whose contributions have furthered our understanding of physiology and medicine and whose work has fundamentally changed millions of lives.

“Sydney Brenner’s presence at the formal opening of this building, dedicated to tackling major diseases, is the highest compliment to Dundee and underlines the calibre of the research being conducted here under the leadership of Professor Sir Philip Cohen and professors Pete Downes, Mike Ferguson and Alan Fairlamb.

“I spoke at length about this with James Black and he could not be more delighted and looks forward to visiting Dundee in the autumn to discuss progress with the scientists in the new building.”

Funding for the centre also came from commercial income from the school of life sciences and university investment funding.

Sir Philip Cohen said, “The Sir James Black Centre will take life sciences research at Dundee to a new level and allow us to develop new areas of research that complement those that already exist.

“We are extremely grateful to all the organisations and philanthropists whose donations made this project possible.”