Revolutionary investment in microscopy in Oxford gets Wellcome Trust support
Publication date: 2016
The stage is set for revolutionary advances in medicine and biotechnology it is claimed, following substantial investment in cryo-electron microscopy in Oxford awarded by the Wellcome Trust in its April 2016 funding round.
The Collaborative Award in Science, headed by the Dunn School's Susan Lea, has been made to a cross - departmental team.
Professor Lea said: “The cell is the fundamental unit of all life and there is an impending transformation in our understanding of how it functions. This will set the stage for a step-change in medicine and biotechnology, as well as being likely to found whole new industries – by analogy to the molecular biology revolution of the 20th century. These exciting changes are being catalysed by many advances, but the most direct technological revolution has been in cryo-electron microscopy.”
The grant award will establish a microscopy facility in South Parks Road, Oxford to allow a group of Wellcome Trust funded researchers to apply new technology and techniques to research questions ranging from infection and immune responses to fundamental processes involved in cell division.