There is an unmet need for better precision medicine globally. Patients won’t always respond to mass prescribed treatments, resulting in unnecessary side-effects and wasted prescriptions, but precision medicine will help optimise patient treatment pathways - and Glasgow can be home to life-changing innovations.
When considering locations for health and technology investment, there are attractive options across the UK and Europe, but Glasgow with world-class research institutions and one of the largest acute hospitals in Britain, has firmly established itself as a hub for biotech, medtech and precision medicine. These fields are crucial to the future of healthcare. This strong academic foundation, coupled with a robust talent pool and the Scottish Government’s life sciences strategy, makes the city a prime destination for innovation and investment.
Glasgow’s new purpose-built life science facility, Health Innovation Hub (HiH), which Kadans Science Partner is delivering in collaboration with The Living Laboratory, will cement its reputation as a science cluster and deliver real impact on precision medicine.
The innovation, creativity and technology Glasgow has produced over centuries is enviable, but we need the infrastructure, support and funding to attract startups and scale-ups emerging from the city’s universities to develop here instead of the golden triangle in South East England or overseas. Since the West of Scotland Science Park is currently at capacity, with inspiring businesses like REPROCELL which uses human data to improve drug development, we understand strong demand exists here.
As a native Scot, I’m proud to be back in Glasgow, not only developing here but contributing to a community where people want to live and work. We are leveraging its existing talent and infrastructure, creating spaces that meet the current demands, while also nurturing partnerships and contributing to a thriving life sciences ecosystem in Scotland.
What makes projects like HiH so exciting for me is the prospect of who might establish and develop their technology there. We’ve secured the Digital Health Validation Lab, a partnership between University of Glasgow and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as the first tenant. This lab will provide essential digital health technology expertise to help innovators deliver high-impact solutions for clinical use which will be transformative for industry.
When creating a purpose-built facility, we can design with flexibility in mind to support the growth of our tenants and meet the strict sector requirements and compliance regulations. Working in collaboration with Glasgow City Council, University of Glasgow, and other stakeholders ensures our projects align with the needs of the community, but are designed to adapt at scale, boosting future growth.
This project goes beyond bricks and mortar. We are committed for the long haul, ensuring our facilities meet the needs of today and support the city’s growth as a global life sciences leader. We aim to bridge the gap between construction and science, ensuring development milestones are hit on schedule and the smooth transition of our assets to fully operational spaces that foster innovation and collaboration.
Together we have a unique opportunity to be at the forefront of life-changing precision medicine driven by collaboration, innovation, and investment. It’s a very exciting and bright future.
Mark Hanna is Director of Asset Management at Kadans Science Partner
Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here