PORTON Down's Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CamR) has commissioned three new laboratories to help develop a treatment for the human form of mad cow disease.

The suite of labs, costing £m and due to open mid-April, will house the centre's growing team of scientists working on a treatment for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

To date, there have been 100 cases of new-variant CJD in the United Kingdom and, although, scientists are no closer to finding a cure, an effective treatment might be only a few years away.