Fast-growing life sciences startup Scottish Brain Sciences was announced yesterday as the first anchor tenant at the ONE BioHub innovation hub on Aberdeen’s Foresterhill Health Campus.
The news marked a milestone in industry’s ambition to double the size of north east Scotland’s high-value life sciences cluster to drive long-term economic diversification and growth.
Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes joined Opportunity North East chair Sir Ian Wood KT GBE, Dr Deborah O’Neil OBE, chair of the ONE life sciences board and ONE BioHub, and the company’s founder and CEO Prof Craig Ritchie and chair Mark Cook for the announcement at ONE BioHub.
Founded in 2022, Scottish Brain Sciences is accelerating the development and implementation of new diagnostics and therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease and other related conditions. ONE BioHub will be home to its clinical trials centre comprising offices, a laboratory and consulting rooms. The team will work with the local universities, the NHS and the broader life sciences community to recruit people from the region into its ground-breaking IONA longitudinal cohort study. IONA is recruiting ten times faster than any study of its kind before to create one of the world’s largest brain health research communities, transforming research into Alzheimer’s disease.
ONE BioHub is a key industry innovation project in the Aberdeen City Region Deal and is led and co-funded by ONE with significant capital funding from the UK Government, Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise. The hub offers hot desks, co-working, laboratory, office space, fully customisable grow-on space, event and meeting space. It is home to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and sector support developed and delivered by ONE and its partners to scale innovation-led life sciences businesses.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said: “With our world-renowned expertise in innovation, academia and research, Scotland’s life sciences sector is a strategic economic priority as well as being pivotal to advancements in treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Through the Aberdeen City Region Deal the Scottish Government has invested £10million in ONE BioHub, a hugely exciting project for the north-east and beyond. As anchor tenant, Scottish Brain Sciences will provide an important role in this partnership, helping realise the region’s ambitions to grow its life sciences cluster while developing and accelerating solutions to the greatest health challenges we face.”
Mark Cook, Deborah O’Neil, Kate Forbes and Craig Ritchie in the space at ONE BioHub
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said: "Economic growth and job creation is at the top of the UK Government agenda, so it's great news that Scottish Brain Sciences has chosen the partner-funded ONE BioHub as its clinical trials centre. Scotland’s economic potential is limitless, from science and innovation, to energy, services, food and drink, tourism and hospitality - we can lead the world in so many areas, which in turn will create good jobs and grow our economy across our great country. This ONE BioHub facility, part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, has received £10 million each from the UK and Scottish governments. Further to this, the funding partnership of ONE and support of the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian has been vital to reaching this milestone, and I look forward to seeing this and many other examples of partnership working to deliver growth for Scotland."
Prof Craig Ritchie, founder and CEO of Scottish Brain Sciences, said: “The establishment of Scottish Brain Sciences at ONE BioHub goes way beyond a simple tenancy. We are delighted to join a thriving neuroscience and life sciences community in the north east of Scotland. As well as being able to offer cutting-edge research to the local population, we look forward to strengthening our relationship with the universities, NHS, and other life sciences companies in the area.”
Sir Ian Wood said: “The vision for ONE BioHub is to foster an ecosystem for life sciences entrepreneurs to thrive and turn innovation and research into world-class companies that will accelerate the diversification of the regional economy. I welcome the decision by Scottish Brain Sciences to locate their clinal trials centre in this market-leading facility, which will encourage other pioneering companies to follow suit. The move also underlines the impact of the private and public sectors partnering and investing to drive economic transformation and once again demonstrates this region’s ability to deliver meaningful economic change, impact and value.”
Dr Deborah O’Neil said: “It is fantastic to welcome the Scottish Brain Sciences team to ONE BioHub. It’s an exciting, high-profile company and reflects the region’s strengths and focus on tackling modern epidemics, including Alzheimer’s disease. This is the first of a series of tenant announcements we expect to make during 2024 and today’s news will catalyse further interest in lab and office space within ONE BioHub. ONE also continues to work with partners to stimulate and support the home-grown pipeline of spinouts and startups from the universities, NHS and wider life sciences community to achieve the region’s growth ambition.”