Located at the Garscube campus, CRUSH (Covid-19 Drug-Screening and Resistance Hub) hopes to be a key player in the research of pharmaceuticals effective against Covid-19.
A Covid-19 drug screening and resistance hub, costing £2.5m, is to be created at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR).
The hub, which will be located on Glasgow’s Garscube Campus and which is created jointly by the University of Glasgow, LifeArc and the University of Dundee Drug Discovery Unit, will aim to “support and accelerate vital Covid-19 antiviral innovation drug translation”. The University will establish the centre for preclinical drug screening and resistance assays for the virus. Looking past Covid-19, the hub plans to support further research to help tackle other deadly viruses.
The new project, named “CRUSH” (Covid-19 Drug-Screening and Resistance Hub), is planned to become a key player in the research of pharmaceuticals that may be effective against Covid-19. Drug screening programmes are to be developed alongside an investigation into resistant viral strains, with aims to amplify understanding of the virus and to help address medical problems that may crop up in the fight to end the pandemic.
Professor Fiona Watt of the Medical Research Council, one of the organisations that has contributed to the CRUSH project’s funding, told the University of Glasgow: “Scottish universities are some of the world’s best, and their scientists are doing sterling work to research, understand and find solutions to the Covid-19 pandemic. This funding recognises the importance of their research and will enough them to continue working for the good of not just the UK, but the world.”
