There has been blanket coverage of JK Rowling’s £10 million donation to set-up a new research clinic at the Edinburgh Centre for Translational Research and quite right too.  The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic, named after her mother who had MS, will investigate treatments to slow the progression, and ultimately reverse, the symptoms of MS but will also undertake research into other neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

You may be interested to know that the Edinburgh Centre has been supported by an MS Society programme (i.e. long-term) grant since 2007 and you can find out more about the centre and the MS Society’s research funding of it here.  There are also some interesting click-throughs to presentations from research staff there about stem cell research etc.

I never fail to be impressed by what Scotland has and is building in terms of medical research capacity and capabilities.  I read somewhere that 1 in 8 life scientists in the UK works in Scotland.

By the way, I also noticed today that the Daily Telegraph has included JK Rowling in a list of top philanthropists which is interesting given the ‘Giving Pledge’ announcement over the summer – see my blogs from August.  By the way, I wrote to Warren Buffet but nothing yet….