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Merlin Ventures, the biotechnology investment firm set up by academic-turned-entrepreneur Chris Evans, is pumping Pounds 10 million into three of its firms. ReNeuron, set up last year, will get Pounds 5 million for research at the Institute of Psychiatry, part of King's College London, on treatments for strokes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and genetic disorders such as Huntingdon's disease.

Microscience, a spin-off of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, will get Pounds 2.5 million for work on antimicrobial vaccines and drugs. Eurogene will get Pounds 3 million for work on cardiovascular disease at University College London and at Finland's Virtanen Institute.