Bench to bedside

1 August 2005

Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facilities have hosted a wide range of clinically important research.

Based at Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester and Southampton, Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facilities (CRFs) were set up to provide much-needed space in a hospital setting for research involving people. Studies carried out in the facilities are helping to clarify mechanisms of disease, and providing results of direct clinical relevance.

In Edinburgh, for example, the CRF has hosted numerous studies on a large cohort of elderly Scottish people, who underwent a series of mental examinations in the 1930s. These studies are providing a wealth of information on early and mid-life factors linked to cognitive decline in the elderly [Gow AJ et al. BMJ 2005;331:141–2. and Shenkin SD et al. Psychol Bull 2004;130(6):989–1013.]. Of more immediate clinical relevance was a trial of statin therapy for calcific aortic stenosis, the build-up of deposits on heart valves [Cowell SJ et al. N Eng J Med 2005;352(23)2389–97.].

One of the Birmingham CRF's specialisms is gene therapy. It has, for example, tested an approach to cancer gene therapy in which cancer cells are engineered to make a prodrug-metabolising enzyme [Searle PF et al. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 2004;31:811–6.].

Cambridge has hosted a number of important studies on body metabolism and obesity, including work that identified an unsuspected role for the TrkB protein in human obesity [Yeo GSH et al. Nat Neurosci 2004;7:1187–9.]

Southampton's Clinical Research Facility has hosted research in a wide range of areas, from the genetic basis of resistance to hepatitis C virus [Khakoo SI et al. Science 2004;305:872–4.] and susceptibility to osteoarthritis [Jordan KM et al. J Rheumatol 2005;32:678–83.], to the effect of food additives on hyperactivity in children [Bateman B. Arch Dis Child 2004;89:506–11.].

Research carried out in Manchester has identified genetic variations that predispose to early-onset arthritis and psoriasis [Donn R et al. Arthritis Rheum 2004;50:1604–10. and Donn RP. J Invest Dermatol (in press).]. The facility was also used for studies of brain function in people with antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy) and borderline personality disorder [Vollm B et al. Crim Behav Ment Health 2004;14:39–55.].