Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Researchers whose work transformed people’s lives across globe
IT’S a project which could save the lives of countless people across the globe.
This week it was announced that Dundee University is getting a £13.6 million boost in research funding to fight life-threatening diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and flesh-eating leishmaniasis.
It’s the latest in a long line of endeavours by city boffins which have helped to transform people’s lives.
Scotland’s fourth largest city is in fact a place with a global reputation for academia, with a heritage of innovation and achievement.
The pharmaceutical war against Aids was waged in laboratories in Dundee as far back as the late 1980s.
And it was the brilliant of mind and tireless work of Sir James Black, also of Dundee University, which led to the life-changing beta-blocker propranolol — and a Nobel Prize.
Quiet wonders have been performed in the labs at the university and while there have been many wellknown and widely lauded successes, some have slipped under the radar.
Who remembers Thomas MacLagan, for example?
Born in 1838, it’s often said that Dr MacLagan “invented” aspirin, but that’s a bit of an over-simplification.
He did the groundwork which made the invention possible — and he did it at Dundee Royal Infirmary.
Also pushing the boundaries at the DRI was Professor Margaret Fairlie, who died in 1963 but is regarded as a giant in the history of Scots medicine — the country’s first-ever woman professor.
She established one of the most successful gynaecological and obstetrical practices in Scotland and became one of the world’s pioneers in the use of radium therapy.
A pioneer who paid a terrible price was Dr George Alexander Pirie, who was born in Dundee and made his mark in the field of x-rays.
During the late Victorian era, he began exploring the little-known world of x-rays little knowing that they had posed a significant risk to the human body. He advanced the science no end but, by 1905, the skin of his hands began cracking open and they were ultimately amputated.
More recently, we have had scientific big-hitters like Sir Philip Cohen.
During the 1990s he was Britain’s third most cited professor and the second most cited in life sciences — and he has been described as “one of the world’s top scientists”.
And if you imagine this is just a specialised niche in Dundee’s working life, bear in mind that something like 15% of the city’s total income comes from that field — and just over 1% of the world’s most accomplished scientists operate in Dundee.
Cohen’s work had a global reach and funding into Parkinson’s research came to Dundee from a charity set up by actor Michael J Fox.
Geoffrey Dutton made his big contribution in the field of biomolecular science.
His work changed the way in which drugs are prescribed in human medicine, through the discovery that a baby’s body metabolises drugs in a different way to adults.
As a result, the lives of many newborn children and infants were saved.
And, earlier this year, Professor Sue Black of the University of Dundee, one of the world’s foremost experts in forensic anthropology, received a Damehood in the Queen’s 90th birthday honours.
It’s not just in science that Dundee has had an impact on the world.
At Abertay University, innovators are working on projects on everything from state-of-the-art sleep-masks to finding uses for leftover coffee.
The institution was selected as the lead partner in the Scottish Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Drainage Systems, aimed at preventing storm water damage suffered across Scotland in recent years.
Abertay PhD student Colin Gray used university research to create a tech support service for the growing podcast market — tapping into a market of more than four million people.
And, in Rwanda, Abertay is working with researchers on biogas production from agricultural and food and drinks processing industries — in particular residues from the coffee industry.
Using games technology, researchers created an interactive city visualisation of Dundee, including the V&A museum.
Today, researchers in the city are still breaking bonds and going to new places in the fields of science and medicine.