Lab staff toast £150m lifeline

THE future looks rosy for Daresbury Laboratory following Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers' announcement on Friday that two projects worth £150m will go to the lab.

The projects will safeguard the jobs of 500 laboratory staff and will form the basis of the new Centre for Accelerator Science, Imaging and Medicine which has been the subject of campaigning and lobbying by lab staff, MPs and international researchers.

The news was received with jubilation at Daresbury. Public relations spokesman Tony Buckley said: "It is fair to say that on Saturday morning lab staff woke up with a sense of relief and a hangover."

Dr Rob Lewis, head of imaging at Daresbury, and a leading campaigner for the new centre, said: "We have all pulled together to make a Phoenix arise from the ashes."

Daresbury's future has been in jeopardy since last year when the lab lost the lucrative Diamond synchrotron radiation project to its sister lab in Oxfordshire.

The new centre, known as CASIM, will initially consist of a £100m Proton Cyclotron project and a £50m fourth generation light source.

The benefits of the projects will be wide-ranging, from improved detection of cancer to a greater understanding of the universe.

The Proton Cyclotron will enable great strides forward to be made in medical, scientific and industrial fields. It will have two strands, one medical and one based on nuclear physics. The project will involve the NHS North West and will mean that in the future, cancer patients will be treated at Daresbury.

Said Dr Lewis: "People in the north west should be able to have the best cancer treatment and the best diagnostics of anywhere in the country."

The fourth generation light source will also lead to far reaching benefits in health, and also in areas such as computer chips.

Dr Elaine Seddon, project leader of the fourth generation light source at Daresbury, said the project would provide a very wide ranging research tool which will be used by biologists, physicists, chemists and medical scientists. The long term benefits will be in fields such as arterial schlerosis, with blocked arteries being cleared with a laser. Laser surgery will benefit too, with tumours being removed with reduced damage to surrounding tissues. A new generation of computer chips will be another benefit.

The projects are subject to approval through normal scientific review processes later this month, and the completion of feasibility studies.

Work is expected to start soon on the details of setting up CASIM at Daresbury. Most of the centre will be housed in existing buildings which will be adapted, and there may also be some new building.

LEADER of the CASIM project Professor Peter Weightman of Liverpool University said it would attract scientists and interest world-wide, make a case for future funding, create spin offs for industry and lead to many new things. "We are very delighted," he said.

Professor Weightman has led a group of 300 scientists, many of them at Daresbury, plus medical people who have lobbied for CASIM for a year.

He said that after the Diamond project went south, there was annoyance. "It fired people up. I am very proud of all the people who have put this case together. It involves the health service and the science base. They have been separate up to now and what is unique in CASIM is that we have put them together."

Professor Weightman said that plans for CASIM are well on: "We were ready to go when we put the proposal in."

Details of funding, design of scientific instruments, accommodation at Daresbury and setting up links with hospitals and companies will all be factors that come on board as CASIM develops.

Scientists who campaigned have all welcomed the announcement.

Peter Butler, a professor of physics at Liverpool University, who galvanised support for CASIM from nuclear physics groups and companies all over the UK, said he was absolutely delighted. News of the projects, he said, looked "extremely positive and everybody is pretty optimistic."

Another campaigner, Professor John Dainton, also at Liverpool, said he looked forward to the outcome of the scientific review process for the CASIM project with "great anticipation and enthusiasm. We will have then secured this amazing and fascinating project as part of the north west science base. That is indeed a triumph and a great challenge for years to come."

Dr Tim Greenshaw, director of research courses at Liverpool University, who had the original idea for a centre for accelerator science, imaging and medicine, said: "I am extremely pleased that the government has recognised the signifiance of CASIM. It is a unique collaboration between doctors in the north west's hospitals and scientists in the region's universities." He said the research councils and the NHS would have to learn how to work together and contacts with industry had to be developed. "We have to ensure that we maintain the fantastic team spirit evident during the work on the CASIM proposal. The next few years will be an exciting time for many of us in the north west."

Stephen Byers' announcement included the establishment of a public private partnership between Daresbury and industry.

Professor Bob Cernik, director of physical sciences at Daresbury and a member of the North West Science and Daresbury Development Group, which recommended CASIM, said: "I am delighted that Daresbury has a long term future as a centre of scientific excellence. We must consolidate our position to convince potential investors that the north west, Warrington and Halton is the first choice for major new investment.The announcement is just the beginning for a major collaboration that could become a model for the rest of the English regions."

TREATMENT for eye cancer currently carried out at Clatterbridge Hospital, Wirral, will eventually move to Daresbury, and will be greatly improved. Treatment for cancers in other parts of the body also will be set up there.

Patients will be treated on a day basis and where necessary accommodated at other hospitals in the area.

Developments on this front are likely to happen in about three years.

Dr Jim Shaw, director of research and development at Clatterbridge, said the hospital currently produces radioactive isotopes for Christie's Hospital. These are used in nuclear medicine for imaging, for cancer diagnosis. This service will also move to Daresbury.

The Proton Cyclotron will help researchers to build on work already underway at Clatterbridge and at other hospitals and universities.

Professor Maggie Pearson, director of public health with the NHS Executive North West will be involved with feasibility work on the project. She said "These are really exciting developments for the north west region and for the NHS. The announcement will give a significant boost to research into the prevention, early detection and treatment of cancer."