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Jam tomorrow? Staff at Daresbury hope that the new money is a “first course”. Credit: CLRC

The future of the Daresbury Laboratory in northwest England, home of the United Kingdom's current synchrotron light source, seems brighter. The centre is one of the biggest winners in a £26 million (US$38 million) government package designed to enhance the region's science base.

The science minister Lord Sainsbury announced the funding during a visit to the laboratory just outside Manchester on Monday this week. Nine collaborative projects have secured government funding, most of them in genomics and imaging.

“These are areas in which the northwest excels,” said Lord Sainsbury. As well as Daresbury, other projects involve researchers at universities and hospitals across the region.

Daresbury staff welcomed the investment, which many will see as a consolation prize after the government's decision to site the country's new synchrotron source, Diamond, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford (see Nature 404, 323; 2000). Synchrotrons generate powerful X-rays used to determine the structure of biological molecules and advanced materials.

“The ground-level feeling around the place is that the awards are encouraging,” says Tony Buckley, spokesman for Daresbury. “But there is also the feeling that this is very much a first course and that dinner is still to be served.”

The largest chunk of money, £9.8 million, will help to set up a post-genomics research consortium made up of four local teams, each involving the University of Manchester. Together with the University of Liverpool, Manchester will get £2.39 million to combine physical and biological expertise in a Centre for Bioarray Innovation.

The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology joins these two institutions in a £2.01 million Third Generation Proteomics project to develop new ways of probing the protein–protein interactions at the root of many molecular diseases. And, together with Daresbury, the trio will use a £2.14 million grant to work on a Microfluidic Analytical and Screening Technology Centre.

This project sets out to develop high-throughput screening and genome-analysis techniques to support the region's healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. The University of Manchester will go it alone on the fourth post-genomics project: a clinically driven $3.0 million investigation of how common diseases develop in individuals and populations.

Other projects include a £2.6 million structural genomics centre to be built at Daresbury, and a £5.75 million multidisciplinary Institute for Functional and Molecular Imaging that will develop and use diagnostic imaging and therapeutic techniques.

“This is great news for the northwest and recognizes the region's international standing in scientific research,” said Sir Martin Harris, vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester and chairman of the North West Universities Association.