University of Brighton works with local groups to boost health enterprise

Academics along with entrepreneurs and community groups are joining forces in an attempt to turn Brighton and Hove into a focal point for health interventions.

The University of Brighton’s Healthy Futures initiative – whose work includes creating medical devices and technologies – will be the platform for new partnerships which will search for and research new disease preventions, diagnoses and treatments. The social and commercial network in the area will be tasked with improving health, innovation and competitiveness.

Professor Matteo Santin, academic lead for Healthy Futures, said: “We believe that in the long term the city has the potential to emerge as a model city for health enterprise where societal needs are addressed through pioneering approaches and where organisations thrive through public and private investment.

“As a non-profit organisation with a multidisciplinary expertise, our University is in a privileged position to make this happen.

“We want to work together to tackle key societal challenges and transform them into opportunities to make a real difference to our community and industry.

“Together with our local entrepreneurs we can develop new models for mental health care, smart design of diagnostics and technologies for the prevention and eradication of infectious diseases, ground-breaking medical implants and diagnostics, pioneering treatments for the healing of damaged tissues and organs and advanced engineering for the manufacturing of drugs, and interventions to assist with early diagnosis, disease prevention and care.”