Plans for Europe's largest biomedical research facility, which will study everything from stem cells to influenza when it opens in 2015, were announced yesterday by Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse.
The UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI) is being funded to the tune of £600m by a range of government and charitable organisations including the Medical Research Council (MRC), Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and University College London. Around 1,250 scientists will work at the new complex on a 1.4 hectare (3.5 acre) site behind the iconic St Pancras railway station in central London.
Biologists, clinical scientists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians and computer scientists will work alongside each other at the new facility. "UKCMRI aims to break down the traditional barriers between different research teams and different disciplines," said Nurse, who chairs the scientific planning committee for the new lab. "UKCMRI will provide the critical mass, support and unique environment to tackle difficult research questions."
