The University of Liverpool has been awarded £20million to create a Bio Innovation Hub to help to create personalised medicine.
The money will be used to build incubator space and enterprises which can focus on helping to predict whether a patient will have a positive or negative response to drug treatment.
The hub will include laboratory and office space and will allow students access to the latest biobank technologies, as well as creating jobs in the area.
Professor Munir Pirmohamed, Head of the Wolfson Centre for Personalised Medicine, said: “The hub will foster collaborative working between researchers at the University, NHS partners, and many different types of companies to ensure that medical research is translated effectively into outputs that will benefit patients.”
He added: “The hub, with the support of city and regional stakeholders, will synergise product development, create jobs in the Liverpool and Merseyside region, and support government strategy on enhancing health and creating wealth across the country.”
The building, which will be partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund, will be located in Crown Street, next to the University’s Institute of Infection and Global Health. It will span more than 6,000 square metres.
City councillor Richard Kemp told JMU Journalism: “It is marvellous to see new ideas and processes developing in an area where there is clear commercial experience within the city.
“For as long as I have been a councillor I have been convinced that more should be done to link the research of our three universities to the creation of jobs. This is just one of the steps that needs to be undertaken to create that link.”
The hub is set to open in September 2015.