Revolutionising health research

New interdisciplinary hub, Edinburgh Centre for Biomedical Physics, tackles health challenges.

The newly established Edinburgh Centre for Biomedical Physics will bring together researchers from physics, chemistry, biology, data science and medicine to tackle pressing challenges in human and animal health.

The Centre will focus on areas such as advanced medical imaging (including PET and machine-learning-enhanced image analysis), the physical and molecular mechanisms underlying diseases such as autism and cancer, and the physics of viruses and infection spread. By combining experimental, computational, and theoretical expertise, the Centre aims to address some of the most complex problems in modern biomedicine – problems that no single discipline can solve alone.

The Centre will act as a hub linking the School of Physics and Astronomy with clinical and research partners across the University, including the Little France campus, the Roslin Institute, and the Institute for Genetics and Cancer at the Western General. Everyone with an interest in physics-driven approaches to clinical problems is very welcome within the Centre going forward.

In addition to supporting collaborations and training, the Centre will host a seminar series across its main research themes and a yearly workshop for the wider research community. Longer-term plans include developing an MSc programme in Biomedical Physics and exploring opportunities for joint PhD training.

As the first centre of its kind in Scotland focused on the interface of physics, modelling and molecular-scale biomedical mechanisms, it will provide a unique environment for interdisciplinary discovery with long-term benefits for research, healthcare innovation and society.

Professor Jim Dunlop, former Head of School said:

The Edinburgh Centre for Biomedical Physics represents a very exciting step forward for our School and our partners across the University. By bringing together complementary expertise from the physical and life sciences, the Centre will enable new approaches to important questions in biomedical science. Our School can be genuinely proud of the key role that our physicists have played in shaping the interdisciplinary collaborations which underpin the Centre. This exciting initiative has the potential to redefine the future of this vital and rapidly evolving field.