Bioinformatics and Opportunities for All

That the Parliament applauds the announcement on 20 November 2002 by the Department of trade and Industry on its Beacon Project grant of £940,000, as part of the “Harnessing Genomics” Programme announced in the “Opportunities for All” White Paper of April 2001, to support collaborative inter-disciplinary research work which sees scientists and academics from computing, information and mathematical sciences, the Institute for Biology and Life Sciences and the Beatson Cancer Research UK Institute at the University of Glasgow working together to develop software that will simulate and analyse the chemistry of the body; notes that these projects offer the prospect of developing new techniques to tackle diseases including cancer, arteriosclerosis, stroke, heart disease and chronic inflammatory and degenerative diseases and have the potential to revolutionise the future of healthcare, and affirms that this research work capitalises on the excellent science base available in this country and will help the United Kingdom maintain our global position at the leading edge of bioscience and biotechnology while supporting the development of new technologies that enhance the future competitiveness of UK industry.