Edinburgh BioQuarter

Edinburgh BioQuarter is a cluster of life sciences organisations centred on the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh site in Edinburgh, Scotland. Around 9,000 people work or study at the site.

1. Partnership

BioQuarter is a partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council, NHS Lothian, Scottish Enterprise and the University of Edinburgh. The site has the University of Edinburgh’s medical research institutes. Its 160-acre site includes the University of Edinburgh Medical School, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and the Department of Clinical Neurosciences. In total, there has been a £600 million investment in capital developments. BioQuarter has generated an estimated £2.72 billion in gross value added from its research, clinical and commercial activities, and a further £320 million from its development.

1. History

In 1997, the Scottish Government obtained planning permission for land in the Little France area of Edinburgh for a new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and it was procured under a Private Finance Initiative contract in 1998. This allowed the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School to relocate from their historic sites in Edinburgh city centre. In 2002, NHS Lothian opened the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. At the same time, the University of Edinburgh completed its first phase of relocation of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine with the move of medical teaching and research to the adjacent Chancellor’s Building. In 2004, Scottish Enterprise Scotland’s economic development agency, acquired the surrounding land. In 2007, following the completion of a series of land deals that cleared a 55-acre site adjacent to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, they launched the Edinburgh BioQuarter. In August 2010, British author J.K. Rowling endowed research at BioQuarter with a £10 million gift to create the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic in memory of her mother, who died in 1990 from complications related to multiple sclerosis. The clinic was officially opened in October 2013. The first commercial facility on BioQuarter, the NINE – Life Sciences Innovation Centre, was established in 2012 to house burgeoning spinouts and startup life sciences companies; this was joined in 2016 by commercial modular facilities in the form of BioCube 1 and BioCube 2.

1. Developments

In 2035, BioQuarter was planned to be a "Health Innovation District". It also has plans to expand the city’s tram network to BioQuarter by 2030. The pipeline of academic and clinical developments includes the Usher Institute (due to open in 2024), the co-location of Biomedical and Medical Teaching and NHS Lothian’s Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion.

1. Response to COVID-19

In 2022, a multi-million-pound research programme to develop treatments for lung infections such as COVID-19 and future pandemics was announced.

1. Companies

Companies based on Edinburgh BioQuarter include:

RoslinCT – GMP contract manufacturing and development organisation (CMDO), originally founded as Roslin Cells in 2006. Fios Genomics – genomic and bioinformatics data analysis services for drug discovery & development. Concept Life Sciences – pre-clinical Contract Research Organisation (CRO) and acquired by Concept Life Sciences, a Malvern Panalytical brand, in 2020. Calcivis – dentistry imaging system. Edinburgh Molecular Imaging – clinical-phase biotechnology company. Galecto, Inc. – biotech company developing small molecules. LifeArc – UK-registered and self-funding charity on diagnostics and therapies. Resolution Therapeutics – developing macrophage cell therapies.

1. See also

Midlothian BioCampus, a nearby life sciences enterprise area Inverness Campus

1. References

Nearby Places View Menu

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University of Edinburgh Medical School

The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The medical school was established in 1726, during the Scottish Enlightenment, making it the oldest medical school in the United Kingdom and the oldest medical school in the English-speaking world. The medical school is associated with 13 Nobel Prize laureates: 7 in the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and 6 in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Graduates of the medical school have founded medical schools and universities all over the world including 5 out of the 7 Ivy League medical schools (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Pennsylvania and Dartmouth), Vermont, McGill, Sydney, Montréal, the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (now part of Imperial College London), the Cape Town, Birkbeck, Middlesex Hospital and the London School of Medicine for Women (both now part of UCL).

Hospital School

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Euan MacDonald Centre

The Euan MacDonald Centre is a research centre which is part of the University of Edinburgh. The centre was established in 2007 and seeks to improve the lives of patients with motor neurone disease (MND). The centre was part funded by a donation by Euan MacDonald, who was diagnosed with MND in 2003, and his father Donald MacDonald. In addition to conducting research, the centre also offers clinical treatments. Around 130 are diagnosed with MND each year in Scotland alone. In 2013, the centre announced a new partnership with the J9 Foundation which provides support for people with MND in South Africa. Discoveries by the centre include the finding that Zebrafish are able to produce motor neurones when they repair their spinal cords from injury and abnormalities in the protein TDP-43 result in the death of motor neurone cells. The Euan MacDonald Centre is currently leading a new UK-wide clinical trial, MND-SMART which aims to find treatments for MND. In 2021, The Euan MacDonald Centre announced a discovery that sheds light on how nerve cells damaged by MND can be repaired.

Hospital School

Royal Hospital for Children and Young People

The Royal Hospital for Children and Young People is a hospital that specialises in paediatric healthcare based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The hospital replaced the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (the Sick Kids) in Sciennes. It forms part of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh campus in the Edinburgh BioQuarter at Little France. The facility provides care for children and young people from birth to around 16 years of age and is managed by NHS Lothian.

Hospital

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. It was established in 1729. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the Empire. The hospital moved to a new 900 bed site in 2003 in Little France. It is the site of clinical medicine teaching as well as a teaching hospital for the University of Edinburgh Medical School. In 1960 the first successful kidney transplant performed in the UK was at this hospital. In 1964 the world's first coronary care unit was established at the hospital. It is the only site for liver, pancreas, and pancreatic islet cell transplantation in Scotland, and one of the country's two sites for kidney transplantation. In 2012, the Emergency Department had 113,000 patient attendances, the highest number in Scotland. It is managed by NHS Lothian.

Hospital Pharmacy