SOME 50 medical research jobs will be created in Dundee thanks to funding by the Translational Medicine Research Collaboration.

The move brings together one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies with Scotland’s finest medical research centres.

Almost £8 million of funding will support 28 new research projects covering a wide range of therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular and metabolic disease, the central nervous system, oncology, inflammation, and women’s health.

The projects will begin in the near future across Scotland and, as a result, over 40 new jobs have already been created in the universities, while a further 50 jobs are projected for the core laboratory, which will be located in Dundee.

The collaboration comprises four of Scotland’s leading universities (Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow), Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co, Scottish Enterprise and NHS Scotland Tayside, Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Lothian, and aims to providenew impetus for Scotland to lead the world in the development of personalised medicine, bringing new treatments to patients suffering from a range of serious illnesses.

Professor Andrew Morris, chair of the TMRC steering group, said, “This first large injection of medical research funding into Centres of Excellence across Scotland is an important milestone for TMRC.

“The spirit of collaboration between the partners has been fantastic, and we have already set our sights on supporting more researchers in innovative ways in the months ahead.”

Frank Walsh, executive vice-president of Wyeth Discovery, said, “Through this first round alone, over 160 scientists across Scotland will be conducting research as part of this collaboration, the results of which could help drive the development of novel drugs for devastating diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.”

Further projects to be funded through TMRC’s £50 million initiative are in the pipeline and applications for a second round of funding are being invited from the scientific community in Scotland.