Two Clinical Research Facilities opened
Two Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) were opened in January. Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, opened the facility at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, and sports presenter Gary Lineker opened the CRF at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In total five facilities are being established as part of a £20 million initiative by the Trust - in collaboration with NHS hospitals, university medical schools and the Department of Health. The CRFs will enable clinicians to undertake patient-oriented research in a hospital setting, and form part of the Trust's aim to translate new knowledge into improved patient care.
Studies being undertaken at the £3.5 million Cambridge development include: the role of genetic factors in the development of severe childhood obesity; trials of prevention of type 2 diabetes by lifestyle alterations in family members at risk of the disease; and a study of bone protection for stroke victims, who are at greater risk of hip fracture and death from falls.
Facilities within the £3.2 million centre at Birmingham include two isolation suites for patients undergoing gene therapy treatment, day-case and in-patient beds, two laboratories and a number of diagnostic and treatment areas. Studies currently being undertaken include: gene therapy for head and neck, prostate and liver cancer; steroid and glucocorticoid metabolism and their role in osteoporosis and obesity, vaccination trials for bowel cancer; interferon therapy in liver transplant patients; and trials into vasculitis, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.
See also
- Ground-breaking research at new clinical facility: Birmingham (Press release: 25 January 2002)
- Ground-breaking research at new clinical facility: Cambridge (Press release: 31 January 2002)
External links
- Birmingham CRF at Queen Elizabeth Hospital
- Cambridge CRF at Addenbrooke's Hospital