A pioneering life sciences startup leading research into neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s has become the first tenant of a new Aberdeen ‘biohub’.
Scottish Brain Sciences is to take up residency at the ONE BioHub innovation hub on Aberdeen’s Foresterhill Health Campus.
The news marked a milestone in industry’s ambition to double the size of north east Scotland’s high-value life sciences cluster to drive long-term economic diversification and growth.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes joined Opportunity North East chair Sir Ian Wood KT GBE, Dr Deborah O’Neil OBE, chair of the ONE life sciences board and ONE BioHub, and the company’s founder and CEO Prof Craig Richie and chair Mark Cook for the announcement at ONE BioHub yesterday.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “With our world-renowned expertise in innovation, academia and research, Scotland’s life sciences sector is a strategic economic priority as well as being pivotal to advancements in treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.
“Through the Aberdeen City Region Deal the Scottish Government has invested £10 million in ONE BioHub, a hugely exciting project for the north-east and beyond. As anchor tenant, Scottish Brain Sciences will provide an important role in this partnership, helping realise the region’s ambitions to grow its life sciences cluster while developing and accelerating solutions to the greatest health challenges we face.”
Founded in 2022, Scottish Brain Sciences is accelerating the development and implementation of new diagnostics and therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and other related conditions. ONE BioHub will be home to its clinical trials centre comprising offices, a laboratory and consulting rooms.
The team will work with the local universities, the NHS and the broader life sciences community to recruit people from the region into its ground-breaking IONA longitudinal cohort study. IONA is recruiting ten times faster than any study of its kind before to create one of the world’s largest brain health research communities, transforming research into Alzheimer’s disease.
ONE BioHub is an industry innovation project in the Aberdeen City Region Deal and is led and co-funded by Opportunity North East with significant capital funding from the UK Government, Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise.
The hub offers hot desks, co-working, laboratory, office space, fully customisable grow-on space, event and meeting space. It is home to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and sector support developed and delivered by ONE and its partners to scale innovation-led life sciences businesses.
Prof Craig Ritchie, founder and CEO of Scottish Brain Sciences, said: “The establishment of Scottish Brain Sciences at ONE BioHub goes way beyond a simple tenancy. We are delighted to join a thriving neuroscience and life sciences community in the north east of Scotland. As well as being able to offer cutting-edge research to the local population, we look forward to strengthening our relationship with the universities, NHS, and other life sciences companies in the area.”