New Unilever Centre launched

For the past five years the University of Cambridge and Unilever have been working on a major new joint venture - the Unilever Centre for Molecular Informatics at the University of Cambridge.

The new centre will provide scientists all over the world with on-line access to molecular science data. It will also develop information technology tools, such as intelligent browsers and robotic intelligence, to extract new knowledge by putting together data from many different sources.

The new centre was officially launched on Thursday, 15 March 2001. Leading international figures in the field of molecular science joined Lord Sainsbury of Turville, Minister for Science and Innovation in the UK and, chairman of Unilever, Niall FitzGerald, to declare the Centre officially open. Lord Sainsbury officially opened the £13 million Unilever Centre and the keynote speech was given by Unilever Chairman Niall FitzGerald. This was followed at 3.00pm by a scientific symposium which featured five distinguished experts from the worlds of chemistry and informatics. The events can be viewed via a webcast by Unilever.

The world-famous scientist Professor Robert Glen, co-inventor of the anti-migraine drug, Zomig, has been appointed to head the Centre. Previously Vice-President in charge of discovery research at the US-based Tripos Inc., Professor Glen is returning to the UK to take on this challenging assignment.

Professor Glen believes the centre has a major contribution to make to the advancement of knowledge: "In the future, major advancements in science will depend on our ability to handle masses of information. Informatics will enable us to access and work with much more information of much greater complexity than was imaginable even five years ago. Currently more than 90% of scientific findings remain uknown to the majority of scientists. With informatics and the development of intelligent browsers and robotic intelligence we will accelerate knowledge generation, processing and use to an unprecedented level."

Molecular Science Informatics is the science of data collection relating to any aspect of a molecule e.g. its length, the angles that atoms are positioned relative to each other, their electric charge or their magnetic or light-emitting properties. This basic data, fed into software modelling tools, allows new information to be generated about the molecule.

An example would be the ability to analyse the cell wall of an invading bacterium, in order to render it harmless or alter the way it behaves. Modelling the cell wall on computer rather than in the test tube, can save an enormous amount of research time.

The Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge has been undertaking informatics in organics crystallographic data for some 25 years and this experience has shown that the methodology has great potential for other areas of molecular science. The Unilever Centre will enable this potential to be realised for the benefit of scientists worldwide.

The information published by the research team will be accessible by anyone around the world - including the public.

Initially the project will work with existing worldwide data held by the Department of Chemistry. It will then expand to include physical, mathematical and other properties i.e. data gathered by other disciplines. All scientific disciplines will be able to access and use the data held by the Centre.

Unilever will provide funding of £13 million over a five year period. The initial investment of £6 million will cover the new building, infrastructure and equipment for the Centre. In addition to funding, Unilever will contribute the time of some of its scientists and, through the steering committee, will work with the University of Cambridge to guide the Centre's work.

More information
Unilever Centre launch site
Cambridge Department of Chemistry
Unilever
Unilever Cambridge Centre for Molecular Informatics
Unilever Technology and Innovation