SCOTLAND is bidding for a multi-million pound investment package which would help create a world class, ground-breaking life sciences centre.
Medical research facilities across the UK are competing to become one of the next "Catapult" hubs, benefitting from a significant injection of cash, connections and expertise to maximise their potential.
Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in Westminster, announced plans to create two new Catapult Centres earlier this year including one specialising in the cutting-edge field of stratified medicine - using genetics to better tailor treatments to individual patients.
Now, it has emerged that a team from Innovate UK, which creates catapults and was formerly known as the Technology Strategy Board, are making a site visit to Glasgow where a new science base working in this field is being created on the South Glasgow University Hospital campus.
Professor Anna Dominiczak, vice-principal and head of Glasgow University's College Of Medical, Veterinary And Life Sciences, said if Glasgow is chosen it would bring some £50m, many jobs and the attention of experts working at the forefront of the latest treatment developments to Scotland.
She admitted winning the Catapult package would be "hugely competitive" but added: "I think we are quite well placed to get it."
The university's Stratified Medicine Scotland - Innovation Centre, currently based at Inchinnan, is already working on projects which aim to give patients the right drug for their condition first time - instead of the existing try it and see approach.
For patients with chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension and diabetes the chance of the first treatment they are given working is between 25 and 50 per cent.
The aim of stratified or precision medicine is use information about patients' genetic traits to work out which medicines are likely to be effective from the start.
Professor Dominiczak said: "There is a big competition world-wide in this area, but I think we are in a privileged position because of our population. We have wonderful patients who want to participate in clinical trials and are trusting and like their doctors and we also have a uniform (healthcare) provider and electronic patient records which we have anonymised and can be used for research."
The Stratified Medicine Scotland - Innovation Centre is set to move onto the South Glasgow hospital site. Earlier this year Mr Cable confirmed £10m towards the research facilities including the purchase of a 7 Tesla MRI scanner which provides high resolution images inside the body and is particularly valuable for examining patients' brains, helping look at stroke damage and tumours. It is the first scanner of this calibre destined for a clinical setting in the UK.
Professor Dominiczak said: "By embedding this centre in a hospital we are much closer to allowing patients to benefit. Clearly our patients will be the first to get the benefit if we have all this hardware and software in South Glasgow and patients from Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee will benefit equally too."
It is understood centres in Cambridge, Oxfordshire, Manchester, the West Midland, Northern Ireland and Wales are also hoping to be chosen as the stratified medicine Catapult Centre.
An Innovate UK spokesman said: "As part of our thorough search for the appropriate location for the new Precision Medicine Catapult, we are looking at a number of areas across the UK. We expect to be able to make an announcement early in 2015."
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