A NEW £90million 'superlab' is being officially opened in Glasgow today.

Health Secretary Alex Neil is performing the opening of the laboratory at the new Southern General Hospital Campus in the city.

The new facility is home to diagnostic services for biochemistry, haematology, microbiology, genetics and pathology, and also houses the city mortuary

Mr Neil said the lab was one of the most modern in the UK, capable of groundbreaking research.

It will see research carried out using DNA technology and a blood science department to allow new diagnosis and treatments to be developed for a range of conditions.

The Scottish Government said the work will see life-saving treatments developed.

The laboratory is in the first phase of the new £842m Southern General Hospital campus.

Facilities include a genetics laboratory, which is developing tests to allow treatments tailored to a patient's DNA, a blood sciences department, which performs a wide range of analytical tests on blood samples, and a range of tests to aid diagnosis of medical conditions.

The entire complex, to be complete in 2015, includes a 1109-bed hospital which will sit alongside a 256-bed children's unit, providing maternity, paediatric and acute services on a single site

It will replace the Royal Sick Children's Hospital and the now closed Queen Mother's Maternity Hospital at Yorkhill.

Once the new facility is open the current children's hospital will close.

A subterranean tunnel will link the laboratory to the main hospital.

stewart.paterson@ eveningtimes.co.uk