Imperial College London launches new Institute of Chemical Biology

Members of the new Institute of Chemical Biology

New Institute to foster research links between physical and life scientists, engineers and clinicians.

Monday 15 November 2010
By John-Paul Jones

In recognition of its continuing growth and success, and in its tenth anniversary year, Imperial College London’s Chemical Biology Centre has been reconstituted as the Institute of Chemical Biology (ICB). The ICB joins other cross-Faculty Institutes that have the task of bridging world-class research activity in the different Faculties and Departments within the College.

The new Institute’s mission is to develop and foster links between our community of physical and life scientists, engineers and clinicians, harnessing their multidisciplinarity to develop novel tools and techniques to solve outstanding challenges in biological and biomedical sciences.

Professor David Klug, co-chair of the Institute said: “Many of the tools and technologies supported by the Institute are unique to Imperial College London. This successful combination of physical sciences and engineering ‘push’ with biological and biomedical ‘pull’ gives us a real edge in this highly competitive area. Our elevation to become an Institute is a reflection of the maturity of the ICB community and the significant progress made by its contributing research teams. This allows us to build on what we have created and start to translate some of the breakthroughs for the benefit of the wider community.”

The Institute’s activities have to date attracted over £35 million in research funding. It has a research focus in areas of particular strategic importance to the UK, namely molecular post-genomic science and technologies. This includes new tools for discovering biomarkers, which are indicators of disease, as well as developing new drug delivery systems. Its cross-disciplinary approach draws together a dynamic network of scientists from over 70 research groups.

Support for multidisciplinary postgraduate training is one of the most important priorities of the Institute, which incorporates a pioneering EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT). The mission of the CDT is to train postgraduate researchers for work at the interface of the physical and life sciences, producing researchers with expertise and understanding that spans both fields. Supporting this aim, every student in the DTC has two supervisors, one from the physical sciences and one from the life sciences, with over 70 supervisors involved.

The success of the training mission has recently been recognised by the EPSRC, which has awarded a £4.6 million Cross-Disciplinary Research Landscape award to fund high quality applied research that has emerged from the CDT. The award will support the Institute’s work on novel proteomic technologies with a particular focus on the biology of aging.

The tenth anniversary of the Chemical Biology Centre was celebrated in July with talks and exhibitions showcasing the technology developed within the Centre and with RASOR, a sister research consortium based in Scotland. The anniversary celebrations culminated in the final of a “Dragon’s Den” style competition, The Doctoral Training Centre Den, where CDT students pitched their ideas to a panel of experts including the chief executives of three major research councils. It was presented by Evan Davis, who hosts the program on BBC television.