Local MP Alan Mak has visited a Cambridge’s life sciences campus to support our world-leading academics, scientists and teaching hospitals.
As Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, he toured the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe.
The mix of NHS, industry and academia in one place means that ideas can be developed and tested before being scaled up at speed.
The Campus contributes £4.2bn a year to the UK economy and every 10 Campus jobs support another nine across the country.
Mr Mak was taken on a tour of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Their scientists have won 12 Nobel Prizes between them. Then he visited the Heart and Lung Research Institute, which has more heart and lung specialists under one roof than any other building in Europe.
He took part in a round table discussion and among those involved were Charlotte Summers, a Director of the Heart and Lung Research Institute and Professor of Intensive Care Medicine who advised governments in the UK, America and Germany on their response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Mak also had a tour of the Ray Dolby Centre, the new home for the Cavendish Laboratory, Department of Physics. The University of Cambridge received £85m from the estate of Ray Dolby, the pioneer of noise reduction recording technology, and £75m from the previous Conservative Government to help create the physics research centre. The Centre is due to open later this year.
The final part of the day was spent with Carbon13, a venture builder accelerator that helps investors and businesses to come together to create climate tech start-ups that cut carbon emissions.
Mr Mak said: "It was fascinating to visit Cambridge’s Biomedical Campus to support our scientists and find more about the wide-ranging and pioneering life sciences work going on there.
"It is a great example of how Britain is leading the world in this sector from a city that was the birthplace of DNA discovery and IVF and which laid the foundations of modern computing."
He added: "As Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology I will continue to champion the work of our talented innovators, scientists and engineers and go on visits around the country to see it for myself.
"My vision is for Britain to become a science and technology superpower that is the key to creating new jobs, spreading prosperity and boosting our economic growth.
"The last Conservative Government always supported the science and tech sector and I will do all I can to hold Labour to account to match that commitment."
