| 2003 |
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YEAR BOOK |
Queen's University Belfast
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Medical Polymers Research Institute
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The Institute will enable the development of new bioactive materials and will build on the vast experience of world class scientists from both the engineering and scientific disciplines.
Medical plastics, or polymer biomaterials, as they are correctly termed, are used in a wide range of medical devices to treat patients in areas such as respiratory medicine, cardiology, orthopaedics, urology and ophthalmology. The Queen's team will be researching a new generation of polymeric biomaterials that will target current clinical problems such as rejection, blocked drainage tubes and infection.
The new state-of-the-art research facility will carry out leading edge, industrially relevant and market leading fundamental and applied research on medical polymers for both medical devices and advanced medical packaging systems.
Funding for the �4.3 million MPRI project came from the EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation (PEACE II), administered by Invest Northern Ireland. The Institute complements the facilities and services offered by the Polymer Processing Research Centre, established at Queen's in 1996, thus achieving a critical mass of 20 members of staff, working in conjunction with 25 academics and 50 researchers, who are currently engaged in polymer related research in laboratories equipped with some �6 million worth of processing and analytical equipment for the benefit of local, national and international industry.
For further information regarding either the Medical Polymers Research Institute or Polymer Processing Research Centre, please contact
Ms. Denise Price, Medical Polymers Research Institute, Queen's University Belfast, Ashby Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast BT9 5AH;
Tel: + 44 028 9027 4563 E-mail: [email protected]