Monday 6th September 2010
JK Rowling donates £10 million to Edinburgh neurology clinic
The University of Edinburgh
A research clinic for multiple sclerosis patients is being set up with a £10 million donation from the author J K Rowling.
The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will place patients at the heart of research to improve outcomes for multiple sclerosis sufferers.
This will focus on patient-based studies to help find treatments that could slow progression of the disease, working towards the eventual aim of stopping and reversing it.
The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic is named after Ms Rowling's mother, who died of multiple sclerosis aged 45.
Work at the clinic will also provide insight into other degenerative neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Motor Neurone Disease.
As with multiple sclerosis, these disorders are progressive and incurable.
The clinic follows on from the setting up of the Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research at the University in 2007, which has also received support from the Harry Potter author.
Ms Rowling said: "I cannot think of anything more important, or of more lasting value, than to help the university attract world-class minds in the field of neuroregeneration, to build on its long and illustrious history of medical research and, ultimately, to seek a cure for a very Scottish disease."
The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will be based in a purpose-built facility within the University's Chancellor's Building, next to the city's Royal Infirmary and within Edinburgh BioQuarter at Little France. This development will build on Edinburgh's strong track records in patient-focused clinical research on neurological disorders and in imaging of the brain and nervous system.
It is the single largest donation that the author has given to a charitable cause. This is also the largest single donation that the University has received.
Clinical academics will work closely with a critical mass of researchers studying neurodegenerative disorders already based at the University.
This will include expertise from the Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research, the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, the Centre for Neuroregeneration, Euan MacDonald Centre for Motor Neuron Disease Research and Division of Clinical Sciences.
There will also be a major emphasis on training the next generation of researchers.
Professor Sir Timothy O'Shea, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, said: ""This exceptionally generous donation will provide great help in the worldwide effort to improve treatments for multiple sclerosis. Work at the clinic will build on the already existing important research strengths in neurodegenerative disorders at the University, which benefit very considerably from our close partnership with NHS Lothian."
Multiple sclerosis affects around 100,000 people in the UK. Scotland has one of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, with some 10,500 people with the condition.
While there is some evidence to suggest that multiple sclerosis is caused by a combination of genetics and environmental factors the exact cause of the disease is not fully understood.
Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, co- director of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Research and Director-elect the MRC Centre of Regenerative Medicine, said: "We can only find improved treatments if we can truly understand diseases and the biological processes behind them. The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic will enable us to carry out studies that can inform laboratory research and, in turn, this knowledge can be translated back into treatments for patients."
Image credit JP Masclet.