Aberdeen BioHub announces Alzheimer's firm as first main tenant following £20m funding award

A Scottish Alzheimer’s research firm has been announced as the first main tenant of an Aberdeen innovation hub, following a £20m funding award.

The ONE BioHub facility, part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, previously received £10m each from the UK and Scottish governments.

Life sciences startup Scottish Brain Sciences was announced as the first anchor tenant at the hub, situated at Aberdeen’s Foresterhill Health Campus.

Founded in 2022, the firm is working to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease and other related conditions.

ONE BioHub will be home to its clinical trials centre comprising offices, a laboratory and consulting rooms.

The team will work with the local universities, the NHS and the broader life sciences community to recruit people from the region into its ground-breaking IONA longitudinal cohort study.

ONE BioHub is a key project in the Aberdeen City Region Deal and is led and co-funded by Opportunity North East with significant capital funding from the UK Government, Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise.

The hub, which describes itself as an “entrepreneurial ecosystem”, offers hot desks, co-working, laboratory, office space, fully customisable grow-on space, event and meeting space.

Deputy first minister Kate Forbes joined ONE chair Sir Ian Wood, Dr Deborah O’Neil, chair of the ONE life sciences board and ONE BioHub, and Scottish Brain Sciences’ founder and CEO Prof Craig Ritchie and chair Mark Cook for the announcement on Wednesday.

Mark Cook, Deborah O’Neil, Kate Forbes and Craig Ritchie in the space at ONE BioHub that will be fitted out as Scottish Brain Sciences’ clinical trials centre. Supplied

Forbes said investment in Scotland’s life sciences sector is a “strategic economic priority” as well as being pivotal to advancements in treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

She said: “As anchor tenant, Scottish Brain Sciences will provide an important role in this partnership, helping realise the region’s ambitions to grow its life sciences cluster while developing and accelerating solutions to the greatest health challenges we face.”

Scottish secretary Ian Murray added: “Scotland’s economic potential is limitless, from science and innovation, to energy, services, food and drink, tourism and hospitality – we can lead the world in so many areas, which in turn will create good jobs and grow our economy across our great country.

“This ONE BioHub facility, part of the Aberdeen City Region Deal, has received £10m each from the UK and Scottish governments.

“Further to this, the funding partnership of ONE and support of the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian has been vital to reaching this milestone, and I look forward to seeing this and many other examples of partnership working to deliver growth for Scotland.”