The National Institute for Health and Care Research has awarded £86.2 million to support ground-breaking work in Cambridge and Addenbrooke's, to help discover new treatments for patients.
The funding will go to the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Centre (BRC), a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and the University of Cambridge.
This partnership creates an ideal environment for cutting-edge ‘translational’ research – where scientific discoveries from the laboratory are turned into experimental and clinical trials to show their benefit, and ultimately improve care.
Read more about Eliska here: Eliska is first to join rare disease trial
This is the fourth round of funding for the NIHR Cambridge BRC and builds on the outstanding research contributions of the past 15 years.
In total 20 such awards were granted to leading NHS and University partnerships across the country.
Since its creation in 2007, the NIHR Cambridge BRC is recognised globally as a leading centre for translational research and is now one of the largest BRCs in England.
We will be particularly focusing on early detection and the changes that lead to disease, so we can aim to prevent and reverse serious health conditions before irreversible damage occurs.
Prof Miles Parkes, director of NIHR Cambridge BRC and CUH consultant
Over the next five years, Cambridge will continue research in areas such as cancer, dementia and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as focusing on developing areas of technology that will likely revolutionise NHS care, such as artificial intelligence (AI), genomic medicine and new state of the art imaging techniques.
The funding also provides opportunities for a diverse range of professionals to undertake research, building a new generation of leading researchers - including expanding research expertise among allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists, radiologists and dietitians.
The centre has already delivered medical breakthroughs including:
- new screening device to detect Barrett’s oesophagus (opens in a new tab), a condition that can lead to oesophageal cancer
- artificial pancreas (opens in a new tab) to help patients with Type 1 Diabetes better manage their condition
Read more about Julian's story here: Patient drug trial to improve recovery from heart attack
NIHR Cambridge BRC also played a key role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic through the ability to rapidly mobilise expertise and equipment to diagnose COVID-19 (opens in a new tab), making major contributions to our understanding of the evolution of SARS-CoV2 variants (opens in a new tab), how the virus spreads through hospitals and other settings (opens in a new tab) and leading on crucial trials to investigate new treatments to prevent long-term complications (opens in a new tab) in survivors of COVID.
Professor Miles Parkes, Director of NIHR Cambridge BRC said:
“The NIHR Cambridge BRC has been instrumental in delivering many exciting advances over the past 15 years, building on Cambridge’s historic strengths in discovery science and translating these into improved diagnostics and treatments.
“Together with our clinical partners, our diverse pool of world-leading scientists and first-class research facilities make the Cambridge Biomedical Campus an ideal place to conduct ground-breaking translational research.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive of the NIHR, said:
“Research by NIHR Biomedical Research Centres has led to a number of ground-breaking new treatments, such as new gene therapies for haemophilia and motor neurone disease, the world-first treatment for Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a nose-drop vaccine for whooping cough, and the first UK-wide study into the long-term impact of COVID-19.
“This latest round of funding recognises the strength of expertise underpinning health and care research across the country and gives our nation’s best researchers more opportunities to develop innovative new treatments for patients.”