Friday last saw Teagasc director, Prof Gerry Boyle welcome the launch, the next phase of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) by Government ministers Sean Sherlock TD, (Research and Innovation) and Simon Coveney (Agriculture, Food and the Marine).

The government announced funding through the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of €36 million which will leverage a further investment of €14 million from industry, for research at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), Cork designating it as a national centre for food and medicine research excellence. The APC will carry out world-class research into how bacteria in the human gut impacts on population health, leading to the development of future foods and medicines.

Prof Boyle congratulated Prof Shanahan, Director of the APC and his team in UCC and Teagasc which includes Professors Paul Ross and Catherine Stanton (APC Principal Investigators based in Teagasc Moorepark) on the success to date of the APC and wished it well for the future. He said Ireland has just received a special mention as one of five ‘up and coming’ destinations for high level research based on the quality and quantity of scientific research being carried out in our research institutes from Nature Magazine, the eminent scientific publishing journal.

“No doubt the contribution of the APC and particularly the ‘Gut microbiota composition correlates with diet and health in the elderly’ publication in Nature in 2012 was important in this regard. Paul Ross and Catherine Stanton, scientists from Teagasc, were authors of that paper along with colleagues from UCC,” commented Prof Boyle. “This investment announced today and the continued support of the DAFM for our Food Research programme, positions Teagasc well to make a major contribution to the development of our food sector in the coming years”.

Announcing the funding, Minister Sherlock spoke of the importance of continued investment in research and said a central part of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs is to ensure that research is better targeted at turning the good ideas of our top-class researchers into good products and high quality jobs.

Minister Coveney said the continued and on-going commitment of private enterprise is also critical for long-term success and he applauded companies such as Kerry Group, Wyeth Nutrition, Alimentary Health, Second Genome, Trino Therapeutics and Sigmoid Pharma for investing in the success of the APC.