INTEREST in the Millennium Dome site is hotting up with the possibility of turning it inyo a multi-million pound biomedical research centre.

Pharmaceutical charity the Wellcome Trust is believed to be interested in taking over the Greenwich site of the Dome. As the world's largest medical research charity, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936, its fosters and promotes research to improve human and animal health.

It is rumoured the £300m project would see laboratories built inside the Dome structure to research the combating of diseases.

Plans could also include space for displays of the trust's work.

In a statement the charity said: “The Wellcome Trust's investment portfolio is constantly under review and at any one time several opportunities may be under consideration. All such negotiations are conducted under the strictest confidentiality and no further details can be provided.”

The charity's possible interest follows news of a proposal from the creators of the Cornwall-based Eden Project as reported in last week's News Shopper.

Designs would see the replacement of the Dome's roof with a greenhouse structure to house tropical flowers and plants.

But the exact future of the site, which closed to the general public on December 31 last year, still hangs in the balance.

Legacy, backed by Labour donor Robert Bourne, would have turned the peninsula site into a high-tech business park but lost its preferred bidder status in February.

This followed the Dome Europe bid, backed by Japanese bank Nomura, to create an £800m urban theme park which withdrew from preferred bidder status in September, last year.

A spokesman from English Partnerships, which owns the site, was unable to comment on the Wellcome proposal, but said: “There have been more than 100 expressions of interest. English partnerships and its consultants are in discussions with all those who have expressed an interest in the future use of the Dome.

“Once market testing is completed a ministerial decision will decide what happens next.”