An autism research centre has been given a £1million funding boost by a businesswoman-turned-philanthropist.

Dame Stephanie Shirley, who founded a software firm in the 1960s, will give the donation to the Patrick Wild Centre at the University of Edinburgh.

Her late son, Giles, suffered from autism and epilepsy.

The funds will go towards creating a new, state-of-the-art imaging suite, which will allow scientists to study autism in new ways.

Dame Stephanie founded the software company FI Group, now known as Xansa/Steria, in the 1960s. The Shirley Foundation has now awarded more than £50m of grants.

She said: “Results cannot be guaranteed but my hope is that this imaging suite will attract more quality researchers to focus on autism.”

The Patrick Wild Centre for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome and Intellectual Disabilities brings together university specialists who want to develop and test new treatments having pinpointed how genetic changes cause the illness.

Dr Andrew Stanfield, consultant psychiatrist and co-director of the centre, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Dame Stephanie for this generous gift which we hope will play a part in developing better treatments for people with autism and related disorders.”