Lord Selborne to lay foundation stone for University's new £9 million facility for world-leading medical research centre

The University of Southampton's Chancellor, Lord Selborne, is to lay the foundation stone for a new state-of-the-art building for the University of Southampton's Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease next week. The traditional 'stone-setting' ceremony will take place at 12 noon on Monday 24 October on the site of the new building adjacent to the Somers Cancer Research facility at Southampton General Hospital.

The Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) is a world-leader in research into how early development in the womb and early years of life impacts on disease and health in later life. Professor Mark Hanson, Director of the DOHaD Centre and British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Science, said: "The University of Southampton is leading the way in research into the early life processes which can lead to chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis and cancer. We are recognised world-wide as leaders in this field.

"The new research facilities will greatly assist our endeavour to find new ways of identifying in early life people who are at particular risk of developing disease later in their lives, and of devising ways to prevent such disease."

The new building will house four floors of laboratories, lecture theatres, and a glazed link to the Somers Cancer Research Centre next door. The new facility will provide co-location for collaborative research groups currently located elsewhere in the University's School of Medicine.