£12 million given to Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre

Over the next five years research at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) will include vaccine development for infectious diseases, funded in part by a £12 million grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Other research under the grant will aim to improve early diagnosis of pulmonary vascular disease, care pathways for patients living with HIV and outcomes for patients with cardiovascular disease.

“This new round of funding will allow the centre to continue this important work and develop a portfolio of promising new therapeutic approaches,” commented Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Director of the NIHR Sheffield BRC and Director of the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN).

The money will assist industry professionals such as imaging researchers, engineers and data scientists from the University of Sheffield, to use NHS data to identify the prevalence of certain diseases in the area to help prevent their occurrence and improve health outcomes. Sheffield-based physiotherapists, radiologists and dietitians, doctors and nurses will also benefit from the financial aid.

Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive of the NIHR, explained: “Research by NIHR Biomedical Research Centres has led to a number of ground-breaking new treatments, such as new gene therapies for haemophilia and motor neurone disease, the world-first treatment for Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a nose-drop vaccine for whooping cough and the first UK-wide study into the long-term impact of COVID-19.”

The NIHR Sheffield BRC is the only UK Biomedical Research Centre focusing on neurological conditions. As such their work has involved developing therapies for dementia, Parkinson’s disease, motor neurone disease (MND) and stroke.

Kirsten Major, Chief Executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust noted that the £12 million grant will enable, “the enlarged Biomedical Research Centre to allow even more of our patients to participate in research.”