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The future: TCD Biomedical Sciences Development |
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courtesy of Trinity College Dublin
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Trinity College Dublin, founded in 1592, is the premier research university in Ireland consistently yielding the highest impact outputs in the country. Over 400 years of innovation and tradition merge in our vibrant city center campus where more than one in ten of our 15,500 students are working towards a PhD and one third of our total budget is research derived. Trinity College Dublin is ranked 13th in Europe and 53rd in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement world university rankings - but our individual subject rankings in biomedical and life sciences also speak volumes.
Trinity's immunologists working on infection and immunity have placed Ireland second in the world in citations per paper in this domain. We are ranked first in Europe in molecular biology and genetics and our microbiologists outperform Harvard, Stanford and Oxford universities. The discoveries of our researchers range across the entire spectrum of human health - from the technology which yielded the nicotine patch to the identification of novel biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease and Malaria susceptibility.
This wealth of world quality research is encapsulated in the College's research strategy for Biosciences and Translational Research. Linking our main campus with our two major teaching and research hospitals in a clear translational arc, Trinity is focused on delivering excellence in the fields of immunology, neuroscience, cancer and genetics. Leveraging Ireland's dynamic funding base from the Department of Education and Science and state agencies such as Science Foundation Ireland, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, Trinity's life and biomedical sciences researchers attract international funding from areas as diverse as the US National Institutes of Health, the EU and foundations such as the Wellcome Trust.
Trinity has invested in leading infrastructure, including structural biology and drug discovery, bioengineering, Ireland's only dedicated research Institute for Neuroscience and significant clinical research facilities to maximize the societal relevance of our basic and applied research. TCD is committed to facilitating and delivering industrial partnership with leading multinationals such as GlaxoSmithKline, Intel and Organon Schering-Plough. Our technologies and discoveries have also translated to a significant and expanding pipeline of campus enterprises.
The future of life and biomedical sciences in Trinity couldn't be brighter. The construction of an ambitious 28,000-m2 TCD Biomedical Sciences Development has started. This facility, due to open in 2010, will accommodate Trinity's Institute of Immunology, a Center of Excellence in Cancer Drug Discovery, expansion of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and TCD's Bioengineering Center. It will house all of our preclinical medical training and researchers from the Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, Biochemistry and Immunology, Chemistry and Engineering. These scientists will be integrated and will collaborate in a multidisciplinary environment to challenge convention and push the boundaries of discovery in the best tradition of Trinity College Dublin.
In a departure for an academic institution, researchers will work alongside industry through our provision of contiguous industry-academic collaborative and commercial labspace on site. Coinciding with the tercentenary of medical education in 2011, Trinity is blending the best of the past for the brightest of futures.