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We’re passionate about Dundee, the city of Discovery. On this page you can explore some of the things that make Dundee great, including our talented local artists and the cutting-edge scientific research we do here.

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Take a virtual tour round the campus

Today, Dundee is world renowned for its pioneering research in medical sciences. This includes ground-breaking research into cancer, diabetes, new medicines and surgical techniques. Much of this work takes place at the University of Dundee. The city also has many amazing stories of innovation and discovery. Find out more on this self-guided tour with facts from the past and present!

In partnership with LifeSpace gallery, WCAIR has ambitious plans to explore the overlap between science and art. We’ve created three exciting exhibitions in the space, and now we’re looking at onwards journeys for the work. Find out more below about our exhibitions so far.

What’s the difference between an artist and a scientist? That’s the question we’ve been asking in earnest since mid 2018 with our friends the Dundee Print Collective. DPC have a great history of creating cool, innovative projects. Each one usually has some key constraint. This could be a colour palette, a theme, a paper type – really anything. The scientists who took part in the project were keen on the idea of being treated the same as more traditional artists. The DPC duo knew that they wanted to do something slightly different with this project. Could we find a way of doing both?
From disembodied conversation to full scale occupation, artist Emily Fong, scientist Alan Fairlamb and researchers from the Centre formed a series of bonds through dialogue and play. Engaging with the Wellcome Trust Building as body, the pair underwent a unique process of manipulating the environment to suit their needs. Not unlike parasites, they wished no harm, but desired to come to an accommodation with their host.
This is our first co-commission with NEoN Digital Arts Festival. We unleashed artists Jen Southern and Rod Dillon to create a travel blog with a difference. Parasiteseeing is the Leishmaniasis parasite’s very own journal. Running across Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and more, it follows the parasite across the world, across time and across the lab. Links to all of the channels can be found at the Parasiteseeing website(https://para-site-seeing.org/) . We scaled the work up into a large-scale exhibition in LifeSpace gallery too, before sending it on to Dundee Science Centre. We’re exploring its next onward flight now.

These articles will help you learn more about the scientific research going on in Dundee. They are written to be easily accessible to everybody and would make the basis of a great lesson plan.

Julia Wcislo explains about her research into Chagas disease, a neglected, tropical infection, caused by the protozoan parasite – Trypanosoma cruzi. This article was runner-up in the Medical Research Council’s Max Perutz Science Writing Award 2020. Read on page 5.

Jim Procter

Ian Gilbert

Philip Cohen

Henry McSorley and Danielle Smyth

Claire Halpin and Sarah McKim

Grahame Hardie

Grahame Hardie

Paul Davies

Miratul Muqit