Almac Discovery and Queen's University Belfast have announced a five-year project to develop a new multi-million pound facility for drug discovery.

The new Chemoproteomics Centre of Excellence which is funded by Almac Discovery and a BBSRC Prosperity Partnership award, is the first of its kind in Northern Ireland and will be located at Queens.

This Centre of Excellence will improve Northern Ireland's drug discovery research capabilities by providing skills training for apprenticeships through to doctoral researchers.

Building on a on a long-established relationship between Almac Discovery and Queen's in biological research and early-stage drug discovery, the facility will leverage the capabilities and state-of-the-art expertise of Queen's researchers in mass spectrometry and biological research across three Queen's University research centres.

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By securing a Prosperity Partnership award for this project it highlights the importance of advanced proteomics in addressing drug discovery challenges which will change peoples lives.

Professor Tim Harrison, Vice President of Almac Discovery said: "Creating this industry-facing, university-based facility represents a unique opportunity to provide a step-change in proteomics-based experimental capabilities in Northern Ireland.

"Our vision is to build an internationally recognised resource comprising chemical probes, experimental capabilities, and proteomics expertise which will accelerate the research and development programmes of regional, national and international industrial and academic partners."

Professor Christopher Scott, Den of Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Queen’s said: "We are delighted to see this new exciting initiative which will drive the research capabilities of both Queen’s and Almac. Our vision is that this Centre of Excellence will become a national asset tat can help support broader research and education pipelines nationally."