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Collaboration between UCL and partner hospital BRCs, drives translational research.
What are the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs)?
The NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) exist as a partnership between NHS organizations and academic institutions, where the idea was launched as a strategy to drive translation for the benefit of patient care from basic scientific discovery.
Why are the BRCs so important for driving translational research?
A prominent barrier to translational research consists of researchers who are developing the scientific concept, having a lack of access to facilities/qualified staff and medical expertise to conduct clinical research. It is clear that collaboration between committed scientists and clinicians is key for successful translation, and therefore the aim of the BRC is to create a structure to provide exactly that.
What do the BRCs do?
The BRCs take innovations in basic science and help turn them into treatments and therapies that have a direct impact for patients. This is often through investing in staff, equipment, facilities and training to help with the translational research projects.
It is common for the BRC’s to support in particular, experimental medicine research which tends to be ‘first in human’ studies, including research into new therapies, devices or the mechanisms of disease.
The centres undertake research in themes across a range of disease and therapeutic areas, such as genomics, stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine.
Which hospitals are partnered with UCL?
UCL has 3 main partner hospitals, where each are the result of an outstanding partnership between an NHS organisation and UCL as one of the leading biomedical research universities, to support world leading clinical translational research:
- University College London Hospital: https://www.uclhospitals.brc.nihr.ac.uk/
- Great Ormond Street Hospital: https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/our-research/nihr-great-ormond-street-hospital-brc
- Moorfields Eye Hospital: https://www.moorfieldsbrc.nihr.ac.uk/
- References
https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/101/11/901/1564082
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0160475
