A UNIQUE, multi-million-pound obesity unit, due to be built in Southampton, will make the city the envy of the medical world, it has been claimed.

The country's first specialist obesity and nutrition biomedical research unit is one of two created at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust thanks to its pioneering research.

Experts there have already shown how poor nutrition as a child can lead to chronic ill health during adulthood.

The second unit will specialise in respiratory disease and new therapeutic approaches to treating asthma and cystic fibrosis and will be one of only three such units in the country.

The units will be worth about £8million in resources during the next four years and be based at Southampton General Hospital.

The Department of Health has created 12 National Institute for Health Research biomedical units across the country at hospital and university partnerships which could show they were at the forefront of medical research.

Biomedical units look at the way natural sciences can be applied to medicine.

Only three other trusts have been allowed to set up two of the new Government-funded units.

Medical director Professor William Roche said: "Our partnership with the university will help us to foster growth in these two areas, driving innovation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ill health.

"The vision for the future is that nutrition can be used as a focus through which a range of major health problems can be addressed directly.

"By improving the health of the people in and around Southampton, and establishing a focus of excellence on the south coast, a model will be established which will help define national policy and to which others in the world can aspire."

He went on to say the respiratory research will include five clinical programmes, including preventing asthma in young children, preventing lung damage in premature babies and overcoming antibiotic resistance in cystic fibrosis.

The trust is also aiming to develop better imaging of the lungs.

It is hoped that in taking basic medical research out of the laboratory and putting it into the hospital clinic will mean patients can benefit from scientific breakthroughs sooner.

Southampton City Primary Care Trust consultant in public health Dr Graham Watkinson said: "We are pleased that Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust has been awarded two new biomedical research units. Lowering the levels of obesity and reducing the burden of respiratory disease in the city is important to us and our population."