HRH The Duke of York visits the Norwich Research Park
25th June 2010
HRH The Duke of York visited the Norwich Research Park on Friday 25th June.
"We are delighted that HRH The Duke of York is visiting two of our Institutes on Norwich Research Park" commented Mr Paul Gemmill, Director of Communications and Information Management at the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council. Mr Gemmill will be explaining to the Duke how the BBSRC funds and supports projects on the NRP that totalled £46 million last year. "BBSRC's underpinning of the basic bioscience pipeline through to innovation and exploitation is a crucial component in maintaining the UK as a leading business contributor at international level" Mr Gemmill said.
Scientists at the Institute of Food Research showed The Duke of York their 'Model Gut'. Co-inventor Richard Faulks and Dr Martin Stocks from PBL Ltd, who provide investment and business development leadership to the project, introduced the system, which is providing the food and pharmaceutical industries with a physiological, cost effective and ethical alternative to animal studies and allows scientists to investigate the digestion of real foods or real pharmaceutical preparations on the laboratory bench.
He then toured the BBSRC Genome Analysis Centre, opened in 2009, where the Director, Dr Jane Rogers introduced him to the staff and explained how TGAC is addressing problems in agriculture, sustainable energy, food and nutrition, through novel approaches in genomics and how it is specialising in genomics technology, high throughput data analysis, advanced bioinformatics and innovation.
The Duke of York also met some of the other funders of developments on NRP, including EEDA and local councils, together with Mr John Irving from Colney Innovations Limited, who manages the new NRP Innovation Centre and the Norbio Incubator.
Contacts:
Andrew Chapple, Assistant Press Officer, 01603 251490 andrew.chapple@ifr.ac.uk
Fax: +44(0)1603 507723 
