Major boost to UK asthma and allergy research as new Centre funded
23 September 2005
A new research centre to study asthma and allergy is to be opened later this year at King’s College London and Imperial College thanks to funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Asthma UK. The MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at King's College London and Imperial College London. will facilitate the integration of basic and clinical research to advance the generation of new treatments.
The creation of this Centre is timely, as incidence of allergy in the UK has risen approximately three-fold in the last 20 years, with one in three people now developing an allergy at some point in their lives. Also, the UK now has the highest levels in Europe of asthma in young people, and 12 million working days are lost to the condition every year.
Professor John Price, Chairman, Asthma UK said: ‘As a leading funder of asthma research, Asthma UK is delighted to be part of this innovative centre of excellence for asthma and allergy research. It provides a unique opportunity to drive forward priority areas of research that will make a real difference to the lives of the 5.2 million people with asthma in the UK.
MRC Centre Grants are intended to help UK higher education institutions develop and sustain international centres of excellence with a clear strategic direction in areas of importance for UK medical research. These highly prestigious grants are awarded to promote collaboration and training across a number of research groups.
This Centre will be directed by Professor Tak Lee from King’s and Professor Tim Williams from Imperial and has three main aims which tie in with the priorities identified in Asthma UK’s national consultation on basic asthma research: to advance the understanding of allergic mechanisms in order to inform the development of new, effective and targeted treatments; to provide high-quality, basic and clinical research training in allergy and asthma; and to provide quality public information on allergy and asthma in conjunction with stakeholders and partners.
Professor Tak Lee said: ‘I am delighted that we have got the go-ahead for this major new Centre. Combining the strengths of the teams from King’s and Imperial, and fostering a multidisciplinary approach to research will aid rapid progress in preventing and controlling asthma and allergy.’
Professor Tim Williams said: ‘The Centre will provide a unique opportunity for the Imperial Team to combine resources with our colleagues at King’s in order to make important insights into the underlying causes of asthma and allergy. The aim will be to develop new approaches to prevention and therapy for the benefit of asthma patients.’
Professor Colin Blakemore, Chief Executive of the MRC added: “We now have the potential to build a world class research Centre for asthma and allergy that will deepen our understanding of the allergic mechanisms of asthma and inform the development of new treatments. In terms of burden of disease, this is an extremely important area of research and it will be greatly enhanced by this high-profile collaboration between King’s, Imperial, MRC and Asthma UK.
Notes for editors
1. The £1 million MRC funding, provided for an initial period of three years, will be put towards:
- A protein production facility and staff, to produce materials for molecular structural studies
- A cell sorter to aid the cellular work on allergy and asthma
- An animal airway-function facility and staff, to enable the use of animal models for both basic biological studies and testing of potential new drugs
- Establishing an integrated 4 year course for PhD students
- A Centre administrator
- A web page and media training of principal investigators, to aid communication of the research work
2. Imperial and King's will provide financial support and laboratory and office space and Asthma UK will continue to fund Tak Lee and Tim Williams's professorships.
3. Professor Tak Lee is Director of the new Centre. He is also head of the Division of Asthma, Allergy and Lung Biology, part of the King’s College London School of Medicine. He is an honorary consultant physician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation NHS Trust, where he is director of the NHS Allergy Service. He graduated from Cambridge University with a first class honours and following period of clinical and research training in the UK, he was awarded a scholarship to study at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He returned to London and was appointed Asthma UK’s Clinical Professor in 1988. His main research interests are in severe asthma, especially the types of asthma that are treatment resistant. He was President of British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology and Chairman of the Joint Committee for Immunology and Allergy for Royal Colleges of Physicians and Pathologists. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
4. Professor Tim Williams is deputy Director of the new Centre. He is Head of the Leukocyte Biology Section in the National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. He has held the Asthma UK Professorial Chair at Imperial since 1988. The symptoms of asthma result from inflammation in the airways and Professor Williams specialises in the underlying mechanisms. The principle focus of his research team is on white blood cells and how they move from the blood stream into the lung. The team discovered a small protein, ‘eotaxin’, produced in the asthmatic lung that attracts eosinophils, a type of white cell that accumulates in high numbers and induces functional and structural changes in the lung. They are working on different therapeutic approaches aimed at blocking the accumulation and/or activation of white blood cells in the lung. Some of these approaches involve desensitising the immune system; others involve using small molecules to block specific receptors on the surface of white blood cells. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
5. King's College London
King's College London is one of the two oldest and largest colleges of the University of London with over 13,800 undergraduate students and nearly 5,700 postgraduates in nine schools of study. It is a member of the Russell Group: a coalition of the UK's major research-based universities.
The College has had 24 of its subject-areas awarded the highest rating of 5* and 5 for research quality, demonstrating excellence at an international level, and it has recently received an excellent result in its audit by the Quality Assurance Agency. King's is in the top group of UK universities for research earnings, with income from grants and contracts of £100 million, and has an annual turnover of more than £348 million. In 2004 the College was once again awarded an AA- financial credit rating from Standard & Poor's.
Website: www.kcl.ac.uk
6. Imperial College London
Consistently rated in the top three UK university institutions, Imperial College London is a world leading science-based university whose reputation for excellence in teaching and research attracts students (11,000) and staff (6,000) of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that enhance the quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk.
Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute conducts research not only into the basic mechanisms of asthma, but also its clinical manifestations and treatment, in close collaboration with the Royal Brompton Hospital.
7. Medical Research Council
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a national organisation funded by the UK tax-payer. Its business is medical research aimed at improving human health; everyone stands to benefit from the outputs. The research it supports and the scientists it trains meet the needs of the health services, the pharmaceutical and other health-related industries and the academic world. MRC has funded work which has led to some of the most significant discoveries and achievements in medicine in the UK. About half of the MRC’s expenditure of more than £500 million is invested in its 40 Institutes, Units and Centres. The remaining half goes in the form of grant support and training awards to individuals and teams in universities and medical schools.
8. Asthma UK
Asthma UK is the charity dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the 5.2 million people in the UK whose lives are affected by asthma. We work together with people with asthma, health professionals and researchers to develop and share expertise to help people increase their understanding and reduce the effect of asthma on their lives.
