What is experimental medicine?

Working with patients to improve diagnosis and develop new treatments.

Before a treatment is approved for public use it must be studied carefully in the laboratory to understand how it works, how effective it is and what potential risks may exist. The safety and benefits must then be proven through a series of tests in people.

The Clinical Research Facilities provide a purpose-built environment for this experimental medicine, involving patients, health volunteers and ex-patients.

This is the place where the scientific discoveries resulting from the research we fund in labs, or 'the bench', are progressed to the clinical level, or the patient's 'bedside.' This is where discoveries are translated into practical applications to benefit human health.

But while basic scientists provide clinicians with new tools for use in patients and for assessment of their impact, clinical researchers also make novel observations about the nature and progression of disease that often feed back into basic investigations.