Infection Medicine

Background

History of Infection Medicine

Scottish Centre for Genomic Technology and Informatics

In 2001, the Scottish Centre for Genomic Technology and Informatics (ScGTI) at the University of Edinburgh was founded with the help of a SHEFC RDG (£2.1M) grant, and subsequently received funding from a European Regional Development Fund grant (£1.4M), a highly sought after DTI Beacon Award (£1.6M), a Scottish Enterprise post-genomic initiative grant (£1.5M), and ITI programme awards (£3.8M and £2.3M) and was an integral part of the Centre for Systems Biology (now named synthetic and systems biology) (£13.5M) that enabled it to become established as a multidisciplinary centre based on an academic research model incorporating: advanced interdisciplinary research projects; the application and development of custom and high density bioarray/microarray platforms to gene expression and proteomic studies; the utilisation of high-throughput approaches in biomedical and clinical research; the development and diagnostic technology and biosensor platforms providing a route for translation; the establishment of an environment for translational research and the development of commercial enterprises based on innovation, intellectual property, and technology development.

Division of Pathway Medicine

In 2007, these activities led to the formation of the Division of Pathway Medicine (DPM) in order to integrate academic, translational and global health expertise with core university activities in teaching and with expanding programmes for developing world medicine.  DPM attracted in excess of £25M in basic research funding.  In addition, DPM was able to increase income from teaching activities in both postgraduate and undergraduate courses, as well as a number of industrial research projects.

The Division of Pathway Medicine supported a broad portfolio of research on infectious diseases, both in humans and in animals, and a longstanding commitment to tropical medicine and public health research.  The research in these areas cut across all three colleges, several schools, divisions and departments and to consolidate and develop the expanding expertise in infection medicine it became timely to widen our aims which led to the new Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine that assimilated DPM with that broader and more clinical focus.