The MRC launches 6 new translational medicine centres
Saturday 3rd March 2007
‘Ragged red fibre seen in the muscles of patients with mitochondrial disease’
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is investing more than fifteen million pounds in creating six new research centres to enable scientific research to improve human health more quickly and efficiently. The centres are aimed at translating discoveries into new drugs, therapies, diagnostic tools or methods of prevention; or using clinical knowledge to inform fundamental research priorities.
The centres will focus on transplant medicine, obesity, neuromuscular diseases, genomics and global health, analysis and modelling of disease outbreaks, and the molecular causes and indicators of disease. They are based at the University of Bristol, the University of Cambridge, King’s College London, Imperial College London, University College London together with the University of Newcastle, and the University of Oxford in partnership with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The total MRC investment in these centres over the next five years will be £15.5 million.
The MRC’s chief executive Colin Blakemore said: “A central feature of the MRC’s work is to facilitate the translation of the UK’s excellent medical science as quickly as possible into effective new therapies and healthcare policies. These centres will be led by six scientists with visionary strategies for translation. An integral part of their plans is the exploitation and implementation of their findings as their research develops.”
The Directors of the new MRC translational medicine centres are:
§ Professor George Davey-Smith, Director of the MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology University of Bristol.
§ Professor Mike Hanna, Director of the MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases, Institute of Neurology, University College London and University of Newcastle.
§ Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski, Director of the MRC Centre for Genomics and Global Health, University of Oxford and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
§ Professor Steve O’Rahilly, Director of the MRC Centre for Obesity and Related Metabolic Diseases, University of Cambridge.
§ Professor Steven Sacks, Director of the MRC Centre for Transplantation, King’s College London.
§ Professor Neil Ferguson, Director of the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling Imperial College London.
To find out more about each of the centres click here.
For more information or to arrange interviews with Professors Colin Blakemore, George Davey-Smith, Neil Ferguson, Mike Hanna, Dominic Kwiatkowski, Steve O’Rahilly or Steven Sacks, please contact the MRC Press Office on 0207 637 6011 or 07818 428 297.
Phone: 0207 637 6011 or 07818 428 297
press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
