The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern officially opened the new UCD Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB) building on the Belfield campus on February 2, 2006. It is a 2,300m² building comprising six state-of-the-art laboratories for synthetic chemistry and mass spectrometric and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). At a cost of €26m, it represents the single largest investment in chemistry research made to date by the Irish Government.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prof Pat Guiry, Director CSCB, tour the new CSCB building.
The CSCB, a UCD-led collaboration with TCD and the RCSI, was funded under a €26 million grant from the Higher Education Authority through the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI). The investment provides a significant platform for the creation of Ireland’s Fourth Level which will produce the knowledge leaders and underpin a climate of innovation for Ireland’s further economic growth.
Dr Hugh Brady, president of UCD, acknowledged the contribution of Atlantic Philanthropies who were the principal non-governmental supporter of this project.
60 per cent of medicines have natural products as their origin. Mother Nature has created a multitude of biological compounds that have one purpose in their host plant but can have extraordinary effects on diseased human cells. So, for example, a natural source of aspirin can be found in willow bark, penicillin is found on mouldy bread and anti-cancer drugs in a marine sponge.
The challenge for scientists is to isolate and identify the active compounds from nature and apply them correctly in patient treatments. Drug discovery requires input from a range of disciplines. Chemists and chemical biologists have managed to synthesise many naturally occurring medicines in the lab and are also striving to discover new molecules with enhanced biological activity and better ways to make them. This research leads to a better understanding of disease at a molecular level.
Since its establishment, CSCB researchers have published over 300 scientific publications and raised over €17m in external grant funding. In addition, there have been 100 PhD graduates and over 50 postdoctoral fellows working in labs supervised by CSCB investigators. These scientists will play a pivotal role in the existing pharmaceutical and emerging biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland.
