BBSRC and the University of Edinburgh announce the appointment of Professor David Hume as the first director of a new world-class research centre being established in Edinburgh
Professor Hume will take up his post, initially on a part-time basis, from 1 May 2007, approximately a year ahead of the centre's establishment.
From 2010, the centre will be based around a new £55M building on the University of Edinburgh's Easter Bush campus.
Professor Hume is an international authority in genome sciences, with a particular focus on the function of specialised cells of the immune system in infection, inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Currently director of the ARC Special Research Centre for Functional and Applied Genomics at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland, Australia, Professor Hume has also held research positions in Germany, the UK, Japan, and the USA.
He will be the first director of the new centre that will bring together around 450 scientists and support staff from the University of Edinburgh Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, the Institute for Animal Health Neuropathogenesis Unit, the Roslin Institute and the Scottish Agricultural College, to tackle some of the most pressing issues in animal health and welfare and their implications for human health.
"I look forward to coming to Edinburgh to lead this exciting new centre and to build on the expertise and international renown of the partner organisations," says Professor Hume.
"This is a key opportunity to help maintain Scotland's world-leading status in animal science through the establishment of an interdisciplinary and unique intellectual environment that will foster new ideas and new ways of working between researchers from different scientific disciplines".
The focus of the new centre will be on basic research, using the knowledge harvested from modern genome science to understand the shared biology of animals and humans.
Applied aspects of the centre will include harnessing the natural genetic variation that makes some animals more resistant to disease than others, development of new treatments in veterinary as well as human medicine, and control of diseases that can pass between wildlife, domestic animals and people.
