1983 - 2002

In 1983 the Institute was renamed The Hannah Research Institute.

In 1985 D.J. Flint appeared on the Scottish Television programme What’s Your Problem in a feature concerning his studies relating to the reduction of body fat. This gave rise to considerable coverage in the media worldwide.

Experiments were now being carried out into manipulating milk fat composition not by oil addition but by modifying the cereal component of cows’ diets enabling the saturated fatty acid content of milk fat to be reduced by up to 17%.

By 1990 Institute scientists were producing over 140 publications per year – an average of nearly 5 per project leader; collaboration with 30 departments in 19 UK universities was ongoing; collaborative research was also being undertaken with scientists in 11 countries outwith the UK.

Scientific debate over the potential for cloning mammals, including humans, intensified following the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1996. While the cell culture and micromanipulations involved were undertaken by PPL Therapeutics and scientists from the Roslin Institute, they used cryopreserved mammary cells that had been prepared at the Hannah from tissue of a late-pregnant Finn-Dorset ewe.

While the Institute’s core-funded programme had always been tied to agriculture and food production, the very nature of scientific research necessarily meant that studies of fundamental biology of direct relevance to agricultural animal science led to increased activity in the field of human biological research and, by 2002, Institute scientists were involved in, and making, significant contributions to biomedical research. At the time this appeared to be more in line with the direction in which government-funded research was heading given a lack of political support for funding agricultural research. The Institute’s scientific focus, therefore, shifted to seeking to improve Scotland’s and world health by exploring and explaining the emerging links between lifestyle and lifelong health and well-being. At the same time food research and support for the food industry was dealt with separately as part of the CHARIS Initiative, developed as part of the Food Clusters Strategy by Scottish Enterprise and food industry leaders in Scotland.