| The Princess Royal was speaking as she unveiled a plaque to open the Dundee Cancer Therapeutic Discovery Facility at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in her first official engagement as national patron of Tenovus Scotland.
She was met by university principal Sir Alan Langlands and Professor Peter Howie, President of Tenovus Tayside, the charity that has funded the £350,000 centre and of which the princess is national patron.
Invited guests at today’s opening heard that Tayside is the most successful fundraising area for the charity.
Referring to earlier comments from Professor Sir David Lane, who thanked the charity for taking a risk by investing in the new project, the princess said the reputation and example set by researchers in Dundee made it the best place to spend Tenovus cash.
“I think that this facility, and even its title Discovery, inspire a considerable amount of innovation and motivation,” said the princess.
She continued, “It has real potential for making giant strides in discovering not only about cancer, but about ways to treat those people who have developed cancer.”
The princess heard the new centre will be devoted to the search for new drugs and antibodies to diagnose and treat cancer.
Using new robotic technology coupled with the pooled chemical libraries of Dundee’s leading life scientists, the process of testing compounds for potential drug development will be speeded up considerably.
After her visit to Ninewells, the princess drove to Dundee University’s main campus where she officially named the new £6 million Applied Computing centre after her grandmother.
The Queen Mother Building is currently under construction at a site off Hawkhill and when completed will house a research centre that will be dedicated to developing computer systems that aid the elderly and disabled.
At the centre’s heart will be a research theatre to test prototype equipment in “real life” settings, such as a bedroom, supermarket orf hospital ward.
The 50-seat studio theatre will have a stage area, specialist video projection to create a “video wall” and controllable video cameras to monitor and analyse performers and users. The centre will also house an Internet cafe.
In naming the building, the princess said, “I thank you for the invitation to join you today to name this building of the future after my grandmother and say how pleased I am that Dundee University is supporting research for applied computers for this particular age group and for people with disabilities.
“Most people don’t need the full power of the computer — only certain things — and they need to know how to reach it. It is so important to understand what their needs are. I am looking forward enormously to the results of the research here.
“I am delighted to name the Queen Mother Building. I know she was delighted with what we have in mind and I know I am delighted with the potential of this building.”
Professor Alan Newell, former head of applied computing at Dundee University, said it had been a great honour for the university that the princess had come to Dundee to name the building.
He said, “The Queen Mother Research Centre is purposely designed for work to make a major boost to researching and teaching within applied computing. The support of the Queen Mother and the Princess Royal coming to name the building is an indication of the importance of the research that is being conducted here”.
The princess’s final engagement in the city was to mark the refurbishment of Mills Observatory at Balgay Park. |
