The Wellcome Trust Centre for Gene Regulation and Expression (GRE) was created within the University of Dundee College of Life Sciences in January 2008. Our aim is to build and enhance GRE as a world leading research centre studying the cell biology of gene expression and chromosome biology. A major objective is to enhance our research by building upon our existing expertise in quantitative approaches to studying gene expression, particularly live cell imaging and proteomics. Our vision is that a combination of these technologies will create a powerful new way to integrate genetic and biochemical understanding of protein function with systems biology approaches to give a deep understanding of cell behaviour.

The GRE Centre comprises eleven principal investigators and approximately one hundred scientists, whose research is all supported through external programme and project grant funding, mainly from The Wellcome Trust, CRUK, BBSRC, MRC, as well as other national and international agencies. Additional funding provided to the GRE Centre by The Wellcome Trust is used to support general infrastructure (staff and equipment), available to all groups in the College of Life Sciences, including specifically the central microscopy facility (4 positions), proteomics (1 position) and high performance computing resource (2 positions). The GRE Centre has also funded three new positions, which we are using to create a novel data analysis team to support our requirement for sophisticated analysis and management of large and complex data sets. Finally, our Centre funding has allowed us to create a new position for a public engagement officer, who supports “sharing science” initiatives throughout the College of Life Sciences.