CELEBRATING LIFE SCIENCES INNOVATION: HOW DO YOU INNOVATE AS A UNIVERSITY? TUESDAY 17TH APRIL 2012 • 2-6 PM THE DALHOUSIE BUILDING OLD HAWKHILL • UNIVERSITY OF

PETE DOWNES • MALCOLM SKINGLE • PHILIP COHEN • ALAN FAIRLAMB • ANDREW MORRIS • JASON BROWN • JASON SWEDLOW

1 Chair Professor Pete Downes OBE FRSE: University Principal and Vice Chancellor

Speakers Dr Jason Brown: Managing Director of Ubiquigent Ltd Sir Philip Cohen FRS FRSE: Co-Director of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy Professor Alan Fairlamb CBE FRSE FMedSci: Head of the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery Professor Andrew Morris FRSE FMedSci: Co-Director of the Medical Research Institute at the and is the Chief Scientist for Health at the Scottish Government Dr Malcolm Skingle CBE: Director of Academic Liaison at GlaxoSmithKline Prof Jason Swedlow FRSE: Professor of Quantitative Biology at the College of Life Sciences

Additional Q&A Panel Participants Dr Alex Chaix: Senior Innovation Manager, BBSRC Dr Rhona Allison: Senior Director Life and Chemical Sciences, Scottish Enterprise

Closing Remarks Professor Doreen Cantrell FRS FRSE: Head of the College of Life Sciences

Exhibitors BBInternational

Biodundee CXR Biosciences Dundee Cell Products Drug Discovery Unit Health Informatics Centre Open Microscopy Environment - OMERO Scottish Health Informatics Programme Ubiquigent Ltd

Additional posters Professor Frank Sargent FRSE - iGEM Lauren Sullivan - Diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases

This meeting was supported by the BBSRC

2 acknowledgements

Celebrating Innovation in Life Sciences, held at the University of Dundee on 17 April, attracted over 100 delegates from across the scientific community in Scotland for a day of discussion and debate. It was in part a celebration of the University’s success in winning the BBSRC’s Excellence with Impact, Social Innovator of the Year and Overall Innovator of the year awards in 2011. But it was much more about looking forward to the roles that universities are increasingly taking in building the knowledge led economy that will power the UK’s and Scotland’s recovery from recession and beyond. We are particularly grateful to the invited speakers for their insight into the process of Innovation in both the university, and industrial sectors. We are also very grateful to our conference chair, the University of Dundee Principal Professor Pete Downes for chairing this event, and encouraging wide ranging debate on a number of issues. We are also grateful to Dr Rhona Allison, Director of Life Sciences in Scottish Enterprise and Dr Alex Chaix for their invaluable participation in the Q&A session. The conference was organised by the University of Dundee. We would like to thank the BBSRC for their generous sponsorship of the event.

3 foreword by the University Principal Professor Pete Downes OBE FRSE

Why we do research? “There are three reasons why we do research. The first is that we have a responsibility to create a legacy of new knowledge for future generations. The technological, social, cultural and hence economic developments from which we benefit today are the result of advances in knowledge made by previous generations. In this respect we stand on the shoulders of giants. Abdicating this responsibility would be the academic equivalent of failing to provide for our children! “The second reason is that humankind is curious by nature. Creating new knowledge and understanding is one of our greatest cultural achievements and is intrinsically rewarding, motivating and inspiring. “The third reason, to quote Einstein, is that we are curious for a reason. We know both instinctively, and from experience, that knowledge and understanding of the most fundamental and esoteric kinds can and will eventually be put to good use. “That universities and not other bodies should bear the major responsibility for driving curiosity-led research relates, in my view, to the fundamental concepts of independent autonomy and academic freedom as well as to the value of research as an inspiration to our students.”

What, if any, should be the role of universities in innovation? “Innovation concerns the harnessing of new knowledge and understanding to the needs of society and it includes not just economic, but also social and cultural needs. Traditionally the role of universities has been to expand knowledge, to publish the findings of research and to allow others to exploit it as they will. Such a passive approach has been justified by the unpredictable nature of when and how knowledge can best be exploited. At the University of Dundee we do not accept this justification not least because it is tolerant of an approach that is demonstrably inefficient. I believe that universities should play active roles in ensuring the efficient exchange of knowledge with the many users of the outputs of research. “They should do this not by shifting from curiosity-driven research to applied research, but by developing partnerships with industry and drivers of cultural and social development. And there must be a balance of short medium and long term impacts of research.”

Capturing the impact of investment in research “Governments that invest heavily in the research capacity of universities nowadays increasingly expect a return on their investment not least because the people who elect them want that too. Publications in high quality journals and the resulting citations for that work enhance the reputations of individuals and the institutions that employ them, but the information is more or less instantly available throughout the world. Any applications that arise are therefore not, in any obvious way, tied to nation or place where the initial investment was made.

4 “Working through partnerships creates clusters of intensive activity where new knowledge is much more likely to be exploited by users of research within the cluster than elsewhere in the world. As a bonus, the users of research, in partnership with universities, will begin to frame research questions designed to address problems they face in their businesses driving a self-supporting, mutually beneficial virtuous circle. These kinds of relationships are central to the concept of research innovation or ‘catapult’ centres currently being established by both the UK and Scottish governments. “This brings me back to the concepts of knowledge exchange and intellectual property (IP) which are central to my University’s engagement with innovation. IP can be broadly divided into two types. Tangible IP takes the form of patents, copyright and direct university-owned spin-outs. Intangible IP is best represented by the distinctive, high quality expertise and reputations of the academic staff and the research units in which they work. The latter is frequently underestimated in terms of its significance and power to drive the key partnerships that must be central to any successful KE strategy. This overview of the symposium describes many examples of successful partnerships as vehicles for innovation. “It isn’t just our governments that need to invest in strategic developments that support innovation. In Life Sciences in the University of Dundee, we have invested in drug discovery as a vehicle to de-risk the fruits of curiosity-driven research and to tackle the problem of developing new treatments for tropical diseases. The Drug Discovery Unit is an engine for innovation bringing together industry- standard screening methodology, milestone-led research programmes and innovative targets from HEIs Scotland-wide. We are about to invest a further £12.5 million in the fourth phase of Life Sciences infrastructure development, the Centre for Translational and Interdisciplinary Research with facilities for a further 160 translational scientists. Construction begins later this year.”

Is any of this relevant to our students? “Just as the fruits of curiosity-driven research can be inspirational to students so can being part of a university which commits to innovation. There is a tendency for universities to be cloistered environments where academic achievement is held above all other forms of distinction. Yet we want our students to be highly employable and key participants in economic growth. Ensuring universities are highly networked organisations fully engaged with multiple partners beyond the ivory tower is the best way I know to maintain the links not just between research and innovation, but between teaching, research and innovation. The type of engaged university that I have described will not only produce research that has impact, but, even more importantly I believe, employable, innovative graduates.” In the next few pages we have tried to capture some of the highlights of life sciences innovation in Dundee through the experiences of our speakers, who have all spearheaded successful partnerships and projects from inception to realisation. We have asked them to identify the organisational strategies and personal qualities that have helped to make a small city like Dundee such a powerful hub of scientific innovation. We hope that their experiences will be informative and give insight into innovative examples of academic and commercial collaborations.

5 6 Sir Philip Cohen is one of the most highly cited and influential scientists working in the UK today. Sir Philip’s contribution has been the outstanding catalyst for the economic regeneration of Dundee into one of the fastest growing biotech clusters in the UK today. He also established the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT), a unique collaboration between the University and 5 major pharmaceutical companies. The DSTT won a Queens Anniversary Award in 2006 for “an outstanding contribution to the intellectual, economic, cultural and social life of the nation”.

The Division of Signal Transduction Therapy: A model for interaction between academia and industry

Sir Philip Cohen FRS FRSE Co-Director and co-founder of the Division of Signal Transduction Therapy and founder of the Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling at the College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee.

“Protein phosphorylation is a mechanism that How have academic researchers regulates most aspects of cellular life, such as at Dundee helped to accelerate the immune responses, the decoding of genes and the control of metabolism. The human body development of drugs that target contains hundreds of proteins called kinases kinases and phosphatases? and phosphatases that control this process and “The Division of Signal Transduction Therapy abnormal regulation of phosphorylation is the (DSTT) was formed with the aim to help the cause of many global diseases, such as arthritis, participating companies initiate and accelerate cancer, diabetes, hypertension, lupus and the development of potent and specific drugs Parkinson’s disease. that modulate kinases and phosphatases for the “One of the first indications that the process treatment of disease. A further aim of the DSTT of protein phosphorylation could be potentially was to develop research tools for academic targeted for the treatment of disease was the scientists to understand the regulation of discovery that a drug called cyclosporin, widely normal cell functions. The division was founded used in organ transplantation, suppressed the in July 1998 with Astra, NovoNordisk, Pfizer, immune system by regulating phosphorylation. SmithKlineBeecham and Zeneca, who were joined Subsequently, the development of the drug by Boehringer Ingelheim in 2001. The programme Gleevec that suppresses kinases Abl and cKit, was renewed for a further five years in July 2003 was demonstrated to successfully treat a form at a greatly expanded level with AstraZeneca, of leukaemia and gastrointestinal cancer. The Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck convincing effects of Gleevec on these diseases & Co, Merck KGaA and Pfizer. A second was the tipping point that convinced the renewal for a further four years occurred in July pharmaceutical industry that kinases were good 2008 with AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, drug targets. Incidentally, the scientist Nick Lydon, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck-Serono and Pfizer. The who trained and obtained his PhD in the College of DSTT is thought to be the largest collaboration Life Sciences in Dundee, developed Gleevec. between an academic research unit and the pharmaceutical industry.” “There have now been 19 drugs that switch off one or more kinases approved for use in the clinic since 2001. Over 150 other kinases are currently How can many different companies undergoing clinical trials of which 25 are in the most advanced stage called Phase III. The current collaborate under a single agreement? global market for kinase therapies is about £10 “The companies supporting the DSTT share billion per annum but is expected to double by unpublished research, reagents, technology and 2025. Moreover, kinases account for over 50% know-how generated by the participating Dundee of the cancer drug discovery programmes in the laboratories and the first right to licence the pharmaceutical industry.” intellectual property that they generate (37 patents filed over the past 12 years, 30 licences granted to companies) In contrast, information obtained using a compound, idea or technology that a company has introduced into the DSTT is not shared, and only sent to that one company.”

7 IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES

How is DSTT support used? Unexpected benefits of the DSTT “60% of the funding is used for fundamental “The DSTT set up the world’s first kinase profiling research on kinases and phosphatases on topics service in 1998 to enable its pharmaceutical of relevance to human disease. The Dundee partners to assess how many kinases were being researchers identify and validate new drug targets switched off by the drugs they were generating. during the course of their research, which can then Protein kinase profiling has subsequently been be exploited by the pharmaceutical partners to commercialised by several companies and develop new drugs. Several kinase therapies have developed into a $US200 million per annum entered clinical trials as a result of the collaboration industry worldwide. As a direct result, the European and many more are in development. Division of Upstate Inc. founded in Dundee in 1999 was the first to commercialise the kinase profiling “40% of the funding is used to support a service technology developed in the DSTT and grew to 125 facility that helps the pharmaceutical companies staff by 2004 when it was acquired by Serologicals to launch new programmes and test the efficacy for US$205 million. Royalty income from Upstate and specificity of the drug leads that are to the College of Life Sciences at Dundee has developed. Overall, the DSTT has delivered the exceeded £10 million.” large amounts of kinases needed to launch new drug discovery programmes on 201 occasions. It has also delivered pilot amounts of kinases and phosphatases (sufficient for up to 5000 measurements) on 1818 occasions. In addition, 967 antibodies and 957 DNA constructs have The key ingredients are been delivered to the companies. Furthermore, a critical mass of leading the DSTT makes 200 kinases, and generates 150 new antibodies and 5000 new DNA constructs per academic researchers annum. It provides the companies with detailed information about the selectivities of thousands of who are prepared to work their compounds (670,000 data points provided in together under a binding 2011 alone).” legal agreement in a field that is of interest to industry. Why has the collaboration continued What about future directions for for so long? the DSTT? “Dundee is the world’s largest centre for the study “Protein ubiquitylation, the attachment and of protein phosphorylation. By contributing 6 detachment of ubiquitin from proteins, is analogous positions, each company obtains the output of 15 to phosphate attachment and detachment and Principal Investigators, who are leaders in their equally important for regulating cell functions. To field, and their 180 scientific and support staff. The develop a critical mass of leading players in this companies therefore consider the DSTT to be good emerging area of drug discovery, we set up the value for money, and being able obtain much of world’s first Protein Ubiquitylation Unit at Dundee what they need in this area by interacting with a in 2008 with funding from the Scottish Government single research centre is convenient. to set up SCILLS. “Dundee not only has an outstanding track “The critical mass of expertise in ubiquitylation, record in carrying out ground breaking research coupled with the existing strengths in kinases and in identifying and validating new drug has led to the renewal of funding for the Division targets, but also provides massive support in of Signal Transduction Therapy (DSTT) for four terms of reagents and services that is unusual in more years from July 2012 in the field of “kinases collaborations of this type between academia and and the ubiquitin system”. The new Director of the pharmaceutical industry. These reagents and the DSTT is Professor Dario Alessi FRS, FRSE services would be far more expensive to purchase (Deputy Directors Philip Cohen and Ron Hay). from commercial suppliers and many are not even The pharmaceutical partners are: AstraZeneca, available commercially. It would be more expensive Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen for the company to exit the collaboration! Pharmaceutica, Merck-Serono and Pfizer with core funding of £14.4 million.” “In contrast to many academic-industry collaborations, the Dundee scientists nearly always deliver what they say they can, and on time, and have proved they can maintain confidentiality and work to industrial standards. Trust is created in a long collaboration, which increases its value to both parties. The Dundee scientists wish the DSTT to continue because they have benefitted greatly from the collaboration (over £50 million of research funding so far). Proprietary compounds obtained from the companies have also advanced our research projects and our graduate students and postdocs learn how the pharmaceutical industry works.”

9 10 Professor Alan Fairlamb is Professor of and is a world-renowned specialist in the biochemistry of tropical diseases. His research has focused on the study of parasites causing three different diseases – sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis. Professor Fairlamb, together with Mike Ferguson, founded the Drug Discovery Unit at the University of Dundee in 2006.

Drug Discovery in an Academic Setting

Professor Alan Fairlamb CBE FRSE FMedSci Professor of Biochemistry & co-founder of the Drug Discovery Unit at the College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee.

“The Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) was founded in What are the aims of the Innovation 2006 with the aim of translating basic science Targets programme? into lead compounds to validate putative drug targets, to use as tools to investigate disease “The goals of the Innovative Targets programme pathways and, when appropriate, advance to pre- are to translate the world-class biology from clinical drug candidates. The key aims of the Unit Dundee and elsewhere and to unlock intellectual have been to combine excellence in science with property generated by academia. The DDU works industry expertise, to focus on patient benefit and with originating academic laboratories to develop not-for-profit, and lastly to complement industry high quality drug leads and to provide chemical by addressing strategic gaps. Our two major tool compounds to understand fundamental research focuses are: neglected tropical diseases biology. The aim is to de-risk targets from and innovative targets and pathways. We are academia to generate added value, and to then also involved in investigating new paradigms and out-licence or partner projects with BioPharma methodologies for drug discovery. companies. “The key elements for successful innovation in “The novel targets programme was kick started drug discovery have been the combination of with investment by the Medical Research Council scientific expertise with industrial know-how. It through their MRC Developmental Pathway was important to have clear, focussed goals and to Funding Scheme and has been subsequently been have high quality resources. This includes a strong funded with revenue from the , the science base, biotech & pharmaceutical industry University of Dundee and income generated by the expertise, and in-house capabilities for all aspect DDU itself. The novel targets programme has been of drug discovery.” tremendously successful and the outputs to date include the partnering of two projects with GSK in the area of skin disease and Huntington’s disease. What industrial experience do staff “The former project, a collaboration with Irwin at the Drug Discovery Unit have? McLean, Professor of Human Genetics at the College of Life Sciences in Dundee, is to develop “Staff at the DDU have more than 170 years new treatments for Recessive Dystrophic collective BioPharma drug discovery experience. Epidermolysis Bullosa (RDEB), a rare condition The Unit benefits from an integrated management where the skin and other surfaces of the body can structure, with cross – disciplinary teams and develop deep blisters with even mild pressure. In clear entry and exit criteria as well as a balanced addition, the Drug Discovery Unit team has also portfolio, with quality validated targets and quality completed multiple high throughput screens that screening collections. Crucially, the drug discovery have provided tool compounds to academics. capabilities of the DDU include the integration Partnership discussions are also ongoing with of pharmacology in the drug discovery target regard to a fertility enhancement project and a selection process.” discovery programme on Alzheimer’s disease expected to reach lead optimisation soon.”

11 What are the aims of the infectious So what were the key elements for diseases programme? successful innovation? “The second focus area of the Drug Discovery Unit “Firstly, a clear vision of the area you wish to is Infectious Diseases of the Developing World. target, and in the case of the Drug Discovery According to the World Health Organisation, more Unit, this is unmet medical need in orphan and than 1.5 million die every year from tuberculosis neglected diseases. Also, strong leadership is and this disease impacts mainly in low-middle vitally important, backed up by excellence in basic income countries. Moreover, malaria is known sciences and drug discovery know-how. to kill almost 1 million people every year and “Teamwork & motivation are imperative across the elimination of this disease continues to face disciplines in the drug discovery process as well numerous challenges, not least of which is the as open collaboration with external industrial and threat of emerging resistance to the current scientific partners. And finally, it is important to effective treatment. have strong institutional support, essential financial “There is an urgent need for new drugs in these support from charities, public private partnerships, areas due to the lack of availability of efficacious industrial and government funding to help generate vaccines and to the fact that public health and sustain an innovative working environment in control measures have proved inadequate. Many drug discovery.” drugs currently used to combat these diseases were designed for other uses and are not fit for purpose in poverty settings where high cost, poor compliance, the need for hospitalisation and lack of safety in vulnerable populations are Strong leadership is contributing factors. vitally important, backed “The DDU has had many exciting outputs from the tropical disease programme, which up by excellence in include potential pre-clinical development candidates for first stage sleeping sickness basic sciences and drug and development candidates for treatment of discovery know-how. animal trypanosomiasis. There is also a project in partnership with GSK that has generated potential Teamwork & motivation drugs for visceral Leishmaniasis. Moreover, the DDU has identified the drug fexinidazole as are imperative across the possible candidate for Phase I/II clinical trials in disciplines in the drug conjunction with the DNDi. discovery process as well “Finally, the Drug Discovery Unit initiated a project in partnership with Medicines for Malaria as open collaboration with Venture (MMV) around 18 months ago and it has already identified a compound that is curative in a external industrial and mouse model of malaria at very low doses, when scientific partners. given orally. This is expected to enter pre-clinical development during 2012.”

Complementing industry

12 13 14 Dr Malcolm Skingle is Director of Academic Liaison at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for more than 35 years and has gained a wide breadth of experience in the management of research activities. For more than a decade he has managed Academic Liaison at GSK liaising with several groups outside the Company such as Government Departments, Research and Funding Councils, Small Companies and other science-driven organisations. He sits on many external bodies including the CBI Academic Liaison Group and several UK university department advisory groups.

Dundee Scientists and Innovation: “Two peas in a pod”

Dr Malcolm Skingle CBE Director of Academic Liaison at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

“The most accurate definition of innovation I have “An important aspect of the culture of innovation found is: the deliberate application of information, is the continued and frequent meetings between imagination and initiative in deriving greater value GSK and scientists at Dundee. Every month, one from resources, and encompasses all processes by or more GSK scientists visit Dundee to discuss which new ideas are generated and converted into incubating innovation projects, many of which useful products. are international. Examples include, the Kinase consortium whereby the College of Life Sciences “Innovation doesn’t just happen and for it to supports multiple groups within GSK (GSK flourish, universities need to engender a culture France, UK, US); SCILLS, whereby ubiquitylation of innovation. The six key ways in which we have research at the College underpins GSK research found a university can innovate are: through in Philadelphia and Stevenage (GSK UK, US); world leading science; taking a multi-disciplinary the electronic health records programme at the approach; embedding innovation in university University which is an area of great interest to strategy; demonstrating strong leadership & GSK (GSK UK, US); the expertise of Professor teamwork; an appreciation of where you are in the Angus Lamond at the College of Life Sciences on innovation chain and finally an open, sharing & mass spec analysis & data handling and finally the collaborative culture.” Drug Discovery Unit & Neglected Diseases group that work very closely with GSK’s Diseases of the Developing World team in Tres Cantos just outside How do scientists in Dundee innovate? Madrid (GSK Spain). “Research carried out by GSK has shown that co- “Furthermore, the University of Dundee has authorship papers between academia and industry responded rapidly to the launch of the GSK result in an increased citation impact compared to Discovery Partnerships in Academia (DPAc) academia alone. Thus collaborations are impactful programme. DPAc is an extension of GSK’s usual as well as productive. The University of Dundee collaborations whereby the company attempts to published 3 to 5 times more collaborative papers access a deep biological insight within academia compared to single institutional authorship. and attempt to couple it with the R&D resources Furthermore, the University has published more within the company. If an academic has a testable collaborative papers with GSK than any other hypothesis that may lead to a new treatment for a pharmaceutical company and looking at the top disease, GSK will provide access in a controlled 30 Dundee academic authors list, GSK have way, to in-house chemistry and screening collaborated and or co-published with about half of capability. I initially contacted the University them. Significantly, industrial co-authorship at the of Dundee about the programme through Rob University goes beyond Pharma and often papers Ford, now Assistant Director of the MRC Protein will involve smaller biotech companies. Phosphorylation Unit, and within a week I’d received 10 or so ideas from across the University.”

15 So why do we at GSK collaborate with What’s important the University of Dundee? is the University’s “Firstly, Life Sciences at University of Dundee is world-class in terms of its publication record, pragmatic approach rating in the Research Assessment Exercise, in research funding awards and in prizes. In my view to IP management & the industrial collaboration has actually further collaboration, through their strengthened the Dundee science base. What’s important is the University’s pragmatic approach Research and Innovation to IP management & collaboration, through their Research and Innovation Services (RIS) teams Services (RIS) teams embedded in the research environment. The embedded in the research University of Dundee is therefore ideally placed to continue to prosper from their relationship with environment. Pharma & Biotech.” The University of Dundee is ideally placed to continue to prosper from their relationship with Pharma & Biotech.”

16 17 SYMBIOSIS Ubiquigent Ltd: Case study of a collaborative approach to biotech spin-out formation and incubation

Dr Jason Brown Managing Director of Ubiquigent Ltd

“In 1999, Ian Ratcliffe – a biotech entrepreneur “The University has been phenomenal in support – and the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at of Ubiquigent by making available lab space and Dundee entered into an arrangement to establish facilities as well as access to an excellent array of Upstate Biotechnology Ltd at the Dundee expertise. Its proximity to innovation and academic Technology Park to be the kinase (phosphorylation) activity at the College of Life Sciences has allowed drug discovery service facility of the US parent the company to punch above its weight. company. This venture was very successful leading “Ubiquigent has brought benefits to the College to the acquisition of Upstate by Serologicals Corp of Life Sciences including financial income from in 2004. the rental of lab space together with royalties “In 2008, Sir Philip Cohen set up the Scottish from sales. Furthermore, Ubiquigent have been Institute for Cell Signalling (SCILLS) with a major able to expose staff to biotechnology and provide focus to advance understanding of the role of employment opportunities. protein ubiquitylation and related modifications in “The symbiotic relationship between Ubiquigent cell regulation and human disease. After discussing Ltd and the College of Life Sciences will continue with Sir Philip, the likely future importance of to engender growth of the company. Furthermore, ubiquitylation to both academic and pharmaceutical I hope that the model demonstrated may help research, Ian Ratcliffe and I decided to embark on to encourage further such innovative modes of a second collaboration by setting up a new biotech commercial enterprise at the University.” company in Dundee. Thus was born Ubiquigent Ltd in 2009 (www.ubiquigent.com). “I believe that it was the combination of the subject Lessons of Innovation expertise of Sir Philip, the lab space and facilities or ‘ecosystem’ provided by the College of Life Ubiquigent: Sciences and reagents provided by an MRC funded • Brain Trust unit at the College that enabled the genesis of the company. • Access to specialised equipment and services “Like phosphorylation, it is being increasingly • Supportive infrastructure and environment recognised that ubiquitin-mediated signalling for staff pathways play a critical role in cellular regulation. • Able to punch above our weight Ubiquigent Ltd addresses this growing opportunity by developing and delivering ubiquitin cascade • Recruiting opportunities reagents, kits, and drug discovery services and has already delivered significant projects to pharmaceutical companies. The College of Life Sciences: “The location of Ubiquigent within the College of • Financial; rental, royalties, ownership Life Sciences and interaction with our academic • ‘Translation’ of research hosts provides an excellent example of how start- up companies can be incubated within a University • Exposure of staff to biotechnology environment. • Employment

18 Dr Jason Brown is the Managing Director of Ubiquigent Ltd. Ubiquigent was co-founded in collaboration with The Scottish Institute for Cell Signalling (SCILLS) Protein Ubiquitylation Unit, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the University of Dundee. Funded by US Venture Capitalists via its parent company Stemgent, Ubiquigent has already developed and delivered on significant pharmaceutical collaborations, launched drug discovery services and a range of products and kits to the ubiquitin research community.

19 20 Professor Andrew Morris is co-Director of the Medical Research Institute at the University of Dundee and is the Chief Scientist for Health at the Scottish Government. He leads a research group on diabetes and has made a major contribution to the development of care for patients with diabetes, with the use of biomedical informatics and e-health.

Delivering quality health care, research and economic growth – a collaborative approach

Professor Andrew Morris FRSE FMedSci Co-Director of the Medical Research Institute at the University of Dundee and Chief Scientist for Health at the Scottish Government and co-founder of Aridhia Ltd

“Chronic diseases are the leading cause of mortality Sir , Director of the Wellcome Trust in the world, accounting for 36 million deaths in “If you live in Dundee and suffer from diabetes, 2008 – 63% of the total global deaths, and more you have recently been taking part in a medical than all other diseases combined. Chronic diseases revolution.” The Times, 30th May 2011. include cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic “Key aspects of electronic patient record linkage respiratory disease and diabetes. In the case of in Scotland that have been fundamental to its diabetes, 366 million people are affected worldwide success is use of a unique patient identifier. (6.4% of world population) and this is predicted to This has allowed clinical records to be shared increase 500 million by 2025. across primary, secondary and tertiary care. The “The World Economic Forum estimates that chronic prevalence of high rates of morbidity of common diseases will cost the world economy $47 trillion complex diseases in the population for study, over next 20 years and has placed chronic diseases together with the invaluable spirit of collaboration amongst the most important and severe threats to throughout the major cities in Scotland, has been economic growth and development.” fundamental to the success of SCI-Diabetes. “Dundee now participates in three Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) programmes funded by How are we responding to this challenge? the European Union. For the University, these “The approach taken by the University of Dundee programmes are not only a source of income is to bring the information age to medicine to generation but they drive academic productivity deliver quality healthcare. Dundee’s vision is to in genetics, clinical trials and personalised combine excellence in life sciences, with expertise medicine. Advances in bio-banking together in translational medicine and clinical trials, to with the introduction of electronic records, has deliver world-class patient care through biomedical provided, for example, the ability to link genetics informatics. with drug exposure and therapeutic response.” “In 1994 we instigated electronic record linkage to create a diabetes register in Tayside to facilitate How do we develop these programmes the effective monitoring and treatment of diabetes. This has led to national implementation within 10 beyond Dundee, beyond Scotland to years and all patients are now recorded on a single have global reach? clinical information system called SCI-Diabetes “In 2007 I met David Sibbald, Executive Chairman which with good governance and confidentiality of Sumerian and philanthropist, which led to the is used in all hospitals in Scotland. Importantly, formation of Aridhia Informatics Ltd. This seeks electronic record linkage that allows the recording to deliver clinically-led configuration of informatics of key biomedical markers has been shown to services with a focus on patient care, patient improve clinical outcomes at the population level safety and organisational effectiveness. Major – leading to Sir Mark Walport’s comment about shareholders are NHS Scotland, University of Dundee’s medical revolution: Dundee and Sumerian.

21 “The company now employs 55 full-time members of staff including informaticians, clinicians and If I had to select one scientists. The three major programme examples quality, one personal that Aridhia, together with the University and NHS Scotland, are taking forward include: the characteristic that I regard in-country delivery of the informatics clinical service and educational platforms in Kuwait with as highly correlated development of a clinical skills unit and master with success, whatever course; a Technology Strategy Board programme to develop a cancer informatics solution to be the field, I would pick rolled out in Scotland and a project to develop clinical dashboards and quality improvements the trait of persistence. in prescribing.” Determination. The will to endure to the end, to get What about the future of medicine and knocked down seventy the arrival of “big data” in health care? times and get off the floor “We will soon reach the tipping point when it will be cheaper to screen the whole genome of saying, “Here comes patients rather than the single genetic currently offered for £1000 each. Potential solutions that number seventy-one! we are currently exploring include: the partnership Richard M. Devos co-founder of Amway later Alticor with OMERO and Glencoe, the examination of and owner of the Orlando Magic NBA basketball team ways of handling both unstructured data and heterogeneous data and potential Cloud-based computing/analytics.”

Lessons of Innovation • Collaboration • Vision • Leadership and scientific excellence • Clear product definition early in the innovation process • Inter-disciplinary teams who share knowledge of current and future needs • The 80/20 rule; researchers sometimes think that having an idea is 80% successful innovation. It’s usually more like 20%; the other 80% is hard-work, knowledge of the market and how to grow a business and persistence.

22 23 The Open Microscopy Environment: Share and share alike Professor Jason Swedlow FRSE Professor of Quantitative Cell Biology at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee. Founder of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME) and CEO of Glencoe Software

“Imaging has become a critical technology across “OME software is therefore completely open all of the Life and Biomedical Sciences. Scientific source, and provides a single, standardised imaging produces pretty pictures, but is also the access point for over 120 image types, and lets technique to make quantitative measurements of researchers use whatever analysis tools they like the state of cell, tissues and even human patients. to process and study whichever images they use. Every point in a scientific image reports a specific These tools transform the way that researchers measurement of cell content or tissue, at a specific can store, share and access the vast amount of position in space and time. image data that is now routinely produced in Life Sciences laboratories around the world. “As successful as imaging has been, its clear dominance creates a huge problem – the amount “OME’s Bio-Formats file translation library is the of imaging data generated in research labs, in most comprehensive scientific image file format biotech, and in pharma has reached gargantuan translator available. OME’s OMERO platform brings proportions. These labs are all now enterprise modern data sharing and analysis technology to image data generators—they routinely produce scientific image data. Scientists can use OMERO hundreds of gigabytes of image datasets each day. to securely access their data from anywhere and They all are viewed, analysed, managed, and often apply whatever methods they need to analyse their shared with colleagues around the world. So, yes, image data. they are lovely images, but to OME and Glencoe OMERO is installed for use in thousands of sites Software they are data that should be analysed, across the world and managing large data sets processed and made available to scientists in hundreds of universities and pharmaceutical wherever and whenever necessary. companies. “When we first imagined developing a software “We founded Glencoe Software as the commercial platform for the visualisation, management and arm of the OME to provide commercial licenses, analysis of image data recorded by microscopes support, and customisation for OME’s software and high content screening systems we had two tools. Glencoe Software provides the server major ambitions: infrastructures to enable large-scale, high- “The first-- whatever technology we developed throughput analysis and visualisation of image data would be open source, allowing us to share and data management tools for biological light applications, tools, and know-how to the largest microscopy and high content assays. Our growing possible number of users, developers and list of customers use OME technology to advance scientists, all around the world. their own imaging technology to the next level.” “The second-- we should build the most powerful and innovative software we could and ensure that it worked and could be used for as many different problems as possible.

Keep going, and do more if you can…

24 Professor Jason Swedlow is Professor of Quantitative Cell Biology in The Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression. His lab focuses on studies of mitotic chromosome structure and dynamics and has published numerous leading papers in the field. He is co- founder of the Open Microscopy Environment (OME), a community-led open source software project that develops specifications and tools for biological imaging. In 2011, Prof Swedlow and the OME Consortium were named BBSRC’s Social Innovator of the Year and Overall Innovator of the Year. He was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

25 OMERO Use of OME tools has a number of advantages: • the storage, annotation, and archiving of overwhelming amounts of image data and metadata; • the submission of raw data with scientific papers - as is currently being done by The Journal of Cell Biology - allowing reviewers and readers to assess the quality of the work and explore each other’s data; • sharing of data with collaborators both near and far, and the application of a wide array of image analysis tools to large image datasets • in the future, OME tools can serve as the foundation of a central repository for image data from labs around the world, allowing scientists to share pre-existing data and therefore accelerating the development of scientific research tools and methodologies.

OME Glencoe Software • Open • Open, wholly owned • GPL License • Commercial licenses for OMERO • Freely available • Customised, supported, warrantied • Supported by email lists • Software as a Service delivery model

The combination of the development of open access software in an academic environment with OME is about data sharing the commercialisation of customised tools, service and access, and ultimately and support ensures that we deliver a platform on which data is: about transparency • Accessible • Secure and integrity. OME tools • Shareable • Analysable allow you to see and • Publishable • Scalable interact with image data, judge it for yourself, and Lessons of Innovation: communicate your ideas • Great people, great team with others. • Great role models • Institutional support • Incredibly hard work and dedication

26 27 There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224

College of Life Sciences University of Dundee • Dow Street Dundee • DD1 5EH

www.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk 28