Alderley Park has been confirmed as the interim home for the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Manchester Institute, underlining it as a key asset in the North of England.
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The institute will comprise around 81,000 sq ft of laboratory and office space to house more than 300 scientists, from where they will conduct research and development activity. It will be located in the Mereside campus at Alderley Park — part of Manchester Science Partnerships — which also has campuses at Manchester Science Park and Citylabs.
This move follows the fire at the institute’s long-standing home, the Paterson Building, that occurred in April this year, resulting in significant damage and loss of some valuable equipment and research.
“We recognise the incredibly important research conducted by the CRUK Manchester Institute and our team has prioritised helping them through this challenging period,” explained Dr Chris Doherty, managing director of Alderley Park. “We are justly proud of the collaboration and patient-first thinking that exists within our region. If you want to be near The Christie, and the academic and healthcare community within Greater Manchester our location is ideal. Alderley Park itself has long been a world class R&D facility and is at the business end of the government’s industrial strategy for life science. It’s not just about bricks and mortar — what we have here is a community of like-minded innovators and scientists. We are delighted to have been able to find a solution that enables this life-saving research to continue.”
“We are grateful to everyone at Alderley Park for making us feel welcome and for helping expedite our move. While being able to return to our original site at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust remains our priority, we are delighted to be able to continue our vital research in the world-class facilities at Alderley Park and look forward to the development of new relationships and collaborations that this move will bring,” added Professor Richard Marais, Institute’s director. “Alderley Park provided a temporary home within days of the incident, with many of our scientists working out of offices at the site. In early June, part of the Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology (CEP) group, led by Professor Caroline Dive, also moved into a laboratory to set up their Early Detection Biomarker Laboratory which is working towards the development of liquid biopsies for diagnosing cancer at an earlier stage. We shall soon have the full complement of our team reunited at Alderley Park and this agreement gives us a period of certainty and everything we need on one site in terms of our scientific facilities.”
This agreement has been facilitated by Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP) and its majority shareholder, Bruntwood, which is currently delivering a £160 million programme of development for the Park. It has also been supported by AstraZeneca which retains laboratory facilities at the Park that they have made available to CRUK.
Mene Pangalos, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president, IMED Biotech Unit and Global Business Development, said: “I’m proud of the way AstraZeneca has worked together with the Alderley Park team to support our science colleagues at the CRUK Manchester Institute. We are delighted to have helped them continue to make a difference to patients, science and the North West.”