First, a date for your diaries. On 20th October the Nobel Foundation is bringing Joseph Goldstein and Michael Brown to Cambridge, and there will be a series of talks etc. here on the Biomedical campus. Brown and Goldstein won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 for their studies on cholesterol metabolism. Their scientific collaboration has been a quite extraordinary success and continues to be highly productive to this day. The aim of the visit is to inspire early career researchers. However, I am sure that later career researchers like myself will be keen to listen to them if the opportunity arises! The programme has not yet been finalised.

The Clinical School will take the opportunity of Brown and Goldstein’s visit to have a formal opening of the Clifford Allbutt building. This is the new name for part of the old Laboratory of Molecular Biology Building. It has undergone significant refurbishment and will accommodate a range of researchers. It will provide space for the Stem Cell Institute to hire new recruits prior to the opening of the new building adjacent to the Cancer Institute, for Medicine while level 5 is refurbished, for a new Cancer Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory and for Clinical Neurosciences. I’m very grateful to Professor Paul Luzio who has done a great deal of work on understanding what different groups need, and ensuring that the building will be as effective as possible.

Second, I’m delighted to say that Cambridge has done very well in our application to the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) for academic clinical fellows and clinical lecturer posts in “priority” areas over and above our formula allocation. This will give us additional ACF’s in medical microbiology, general practice, child and adolescent psychiatry and trauma/orthopaedic surgery and AL’s in medical microbiology and trauma/orthopaedic surgery. A terrific result – many thanks to Professor Edwin Chilvers (Medicine), Dr Brian Huntly (Haematology) and Liz McIntyre (CATO).