The University has a highly successful history of securing significant infrastructure and revenue funding to enable biomedical research activity, placing its staff and students in a very fortunate position with regard to availability and access to both basic and advanced facilities. Facilities and expertise available to members of the HDDT CRN include the following within the Medical School:
The Wellcome Clinical Research Facility (WTCRF); located at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, the facility was established using a Wellcome Trust Millennial Grant for Clinical Research Facilities and is a joint initiative between the UoB Medical School and the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, both of which are involved in the strategic planning of the facility. The facility aims to provide a high quality clinical environment in which patients can undergo research programmes safely and effectively according to robust, ethically approved, trial protocols. Significant further funding has recently been secured through the National Clinical Research Infrastructure competition, to extend the WTCRF and to expand and create a satellite facility at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital. This will be the first dedicated paediatric WTCRF in the UK.
The Institute of Biomedical Research (IBR); opened at the end of 2003, the £30m JIF-funded IBR provides 5000m2 of the highest specification research laboratories including extensive Category3 containment facilities and housing state of the art technologies, including HPLC, proteomics, microarray, flow cytology and confocal microscopy. This new facility has been designed so that clinical and basic scientists can work together in multidisciplinary research teams to address national and international health priorities including cardiovascular disease, hepatitis, diabetes and the ageing population;
The Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy (HWB.NMR); a new, JIF-funded, scientific facility providing researchers in the UK, and across Europe, with access to high field magnetic resonance spectrometers for biomolecular research. The facility was opened in 2004 and operates state-of-the-art equipment including 900, 800, 600 and 500 MHz NMR spectrometers, which will be used to determine protein structures for molecules of biomedical significance. The centre, which is the only one of its kind based in a Medical School, is linked to x-ray crystallography and bioinformatics initiatives across the University.
The MRC Centre for Immune Regulation; opened in February 1999, the Centre adopts a collaborative approach to study the multiple facets of immune responses in the context of selected diseases. The focus is on the chronic infections - Tuberculosis, Epstein-Barr virus, Hepatitis B and C and cytomegalovirus and the inflammatory diseases - rheumatoid arthritis and vasculitis. The Centre recently secured a further 5 years core funding from the MRC.
The Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Institute for Cancer Studies (ICS); at the forefront of cancer research within the UK, the ICS enjoys an international reputation in cancer genetics, signal transduction, viral oncology and immunology, cancer gene- and immuno-therapy and cancer clinical trials. The ICS recently achieved CRUK Clinical Cancer Centre and CRUK-Department of Health (DH) Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre status and funding through national competition.
The Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU); the CRCTU, strongly supported by Cancer Research UK, has a remit to take basic research generated through our UoB laboratories, and that of other laboratories, and to offer an infrastructure in which such developments can be translated rapidly and effectively so as to alter clinical practice, as well as developing and co-ordinating large scale multi-centre trials.The CRCTU was the first academic trials unit to undergo successful Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Good Clinical Practice (GCP) inspection in 2004.
Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU); established in 1997 with core funding from the NHS Research and Development Executive. BCTU’s main remit is to provide a regionally based source of advice and practical help for researchers wishing to run clinical trials in diseases other than cancer. BCTU’s clinical trial research covers almost all disease areas with particular strengths in neurodegenerative diseases, leukaemia, renal disease, women’s health and surgery. BCTU recently secured significant continuation core funding from the DH.
The Primary Care Clinical Research and Clinical Trials Unit (PC-CRTU); one of the largest and longest running academic primary care facilities in Europe for therapeutic trials in the community. This is an expert central facility for co-ordinating large or small community-based clinical trials. Specific expertise in primary care trials is unrivalled in Birmingham, with the largest NHS-supported primary care research network in the UK (The Midlands Practices Research Consortium; MidReC), with strong links to the department and the only primary care research web-portal (MidReC-en). Trials are mainly conducted within the MidReC, comprising a network of over 600 practices with populations that are representative of England and Wales.
The Centre for Cardiovascular Sciences was created at the beginning of 2004 to facilitate interactions and collaborations in cardiovascular research. The centre includes groups in the IBR and adjacent Cardiovascular Link Building, supported by the British Heat Foundation, as well as groups elsewhere in the Medical School, Biosciences and regional hospitals.
The Clinical Immunology Service; provides a comprehensive range of tests for the immunological investigation of patients. One of the largest diagnostic immunology services in the country, receiving approximately 55,000 specimens per annum and providing a comprehensive laboratory diagnostic service which includes immunophenotyping in haematolymphoid malignancy and immunodeficiency, autoimmune serology, immunochemistry, allergy, cellular and neuroimmunology testing.
The Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine; the mission of the Institute is to develop and conduct research and teaching programmes in occupational and environmental medicine, epidemiology, ergonomics, toxicology, hygiene, and other related disciplines in order to prevent health hazards in the workplace and in the common environment with an aim to create healthful general and working environments. The main research areas are divided into environment-oriented and outcome-oriented research areas, which overlap and complement each other.
