![[header image]](/medicine/Images/File,33664,en.jpg "School of Medicine")
Research at the School of Medicine is housed in its purpose-built research institute - the Institute of Life Science
The Institute of Life Science (ILS) is a £52 million purpose-built facility strategically located between the School of Medicine and Singleton Hospital, part of the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. This facility has been made possible through a unique collaboration between IBM, Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly Government.
The emphasis at the ILS is on high quality inter- and multi-disciplinary research. The work reflects the post-genomic era, whereby researchers can start collaborating in order to identify the complex genetic background of many diseases and start improving treatments. It is also an era of increasing healthcare delivery challenges, such as hospital-acquired infections and data collation. The ILS is responding to these challenges, focusing on discovering radical ways to treat disease and deliver healthcare. It is further helped in this endeavour by a unique supercomputing infrastructure centred on Blue C. One of the very few supercomputers in the world dedicated to life science research, Blue C has a permanent home at Swansea University as part of a high profile collaboration with IBM.
Life science is recognised as one of the most fertile sources of technology transfer in the world, giving the ILS the potential to create significant economic wealth. Opportunities are arising from areas such as research collaboration, intellectual property licensing, spinout companies and inward investment and, in readiness for these, the ILS is well equipped. With state-of-the-art laboratories and a dedicated Business Development Centre, the focus is on building long-term commercial-academic links and making first-class medical progress to take medical advances from the laboratory into hospitals, surgeries and homes.
From the beginning, the ILS vision promised benefits to both the health and wealth of the nation by advancing medical science through interdisciplinary research and innovation. To find out more about how it has been delivering on this promise, visit the Institute of Life Science website.
