Cancer Research UK has awarded £2.5 million to scientists at Strathclyde's new Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences for research into new drugs for prostate cancer.
The grant is part of a £10 million investment in drug discovery projects at four universities across the UK.
Professor Simon Mackay of the Strathclyde Institute will investigate ways to overcome the major challenge of drug resistance in the treatment of prostate cancer. The project is a collaborative venture between the Institute and the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry.
He said: "Targeting specific proteins to treat prostate cancer is currently a very exciting area of research. We're delighted to receive this Cancer Research UK grant, and hope it will help us discover drugs that target key signalling proteins and provide more effective treatments for the disease.
"A key feature of our programme is the multi-disciplinary approach we embody at Strathclyde through collaboration between molecular biologists, pharmacologists, medicinal chemists and pharmacists. Representatives of all these disciplines will be working on the programme."
Nearly 35,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year, with 2,500 cases in Scotland in 2004. It is the most common cancer in men in the UK and accounts for nearly a quarter of all new cases of male cancer.
Project leaders at the University of Strathclyde, Imperial College London, University of Oxford and The School of Pharmacy in London will each receive £500k per year for five years to develop anti-cancer drugs.
Professor Herbie Newell, Cancer Research UK's executive director of clinical and translational research, said: "We are in the process of significantly expanding our drug discovery programmes. We will be investing more in developing new approaches to treatments and getting the most promising drugs into first clinical trials in man faster.
"Recent advances in our understanding of the biology of cancer have revolutionised the way we discover drugs, using specific targets as starting points. The four projects will embrace this method of drug discovery. We hope the discoveries will complement our existing drug development programmes and other aspects of the charity's work, including trials geared towards improving existing treatments for cancer patients."
The Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences is a pioneering, world-class centre for teaching and research, with a particular focus on drug discovery and development.
Plans for a £35 million, state-of-the-art building for the Institute are underway to allow further collaborations and advanced research into the diseases of the 21st Century.
The University has injected £27 million into the £35 million capital build - its largest investment in a single project to date - and has successfully secured lead gifts equating to £2.75 million from charitable trusts such as the Wolfson Foundation, Robertson Trust and Garfield Weston Foundation. The balance will be raised through a fundraising campaign.
The picture shows (clockwise from top): Dr Andy Paul, Dr Catherine Breslin, Dr Sandy Gray, Prof Simon Mackay, Dr Joanne Edwards, Prof Robin Plevin, Dr Blair Johnston, Dr Oliver Sutcliffe and Dr Justice Tettey. Also in the team are Professors Colin Suckling, John Murphy, Alan Harvey and Hing Leung.