Taking the laboratory to the bedside

Bringing together gifted scientists and dedicated doctors carrying out clinical research can be challenging, but is essential if discoveries made in laboratories are to be translated into advances in patient care.

The Cambridge Biomedical Campus is ideally positioned to do this; it provides an environment where internationally acclaimed researchers work alongside practitioners at one of the country’s leading hospitals.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trusts, which includes Addenbrooke’s Hospital, is establishing its name as a leading clinical and academic centre with a national and international reputation.

Many elements contribute to the strength of this reputation: as the provider of local hospital services; delivering expertise in specialist medicine; partnership with a world-renowned university through its medical school and pioneering activities in internationally competitive research.

Cambridge University Hospitals is one of the very few places in the UK that provides a centre of research excellence together with a complete clinical infrastructure.

The Trust shares its campus with a number of internationally renowned organisations including Cancer Research UK (CRUK), GlaxoSmithKline, Medical Research Council (MRC), and the University of Cambridge.

Cambridge scientists have long been pushing at the frontiers of knowledge and have made outstanding contributions to medicine-related science. The MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology has produced 12 Nobel laureates — the highest international accolade for scientists.

The economic success of the Cambridge sub-region has made it one of the most attractive places to live and work in the UK. It offers a vibrant commercial network, world-famous research and academic institutions, and a high quality of life which continues to draw enterprises from across the country and around the world.

Through Addenbrooke’s Hospital, the Trust provides emergency, surgical and medical services for people living in the Cambridge area, and is a centre of excellence for regional specialist services for organ transplantation, cancer, neurosciences, paediatrics and genetics.

At Addenbrooke’s clinical teams work alongside world-class scientists and it is this co-existence of experience and expertise that fosters translational research — turning basic science into new drugs and new therapies to improve patient care. Over 1,000 projects and 400 clinical trials are run by the hospitals’ staff.

Bridging the gap between research in the laboratory and applying new findings to patient care requires specialist facilities dedicated to this purpose. The Addenbrooke’s Clinical Research Centre provides these facilities and enables staff to undertake high quality research work while still providing excellent clinical care to patients.

In December 2006, Cambridge University Hospitals in partnership with the University of Cambridge was designated as one of the government’s new National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centres, and will receive substantial new research and development funding from the NIHR which will be used to further develop medical science.

The Biomedical Research Centre will address major health priorities in cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity diabetes and metabolic disorders, imaging, infection and immunity, genetics, musculoskeletal disorders, neurosciences, transplantation, women’s health, and capacity development and training.

In February 2007 the new Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute in the Li Ka Shing Centre based on the campus was opened by HM Queen. More than 300 scientists in up to thirty research groups will be based at the Institute which is dedicated to state-of-the-art research into the causes of cancer, and developing new treatments and bringing them to the clinic to benefit cancer patients.

The University of Cambridge, School of Clinical Medicine on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, is a major centre for biomedical research and education of world-leading quality. In the most recent University Funding Council Research Selectivity Exercise, Cambridge shared the highest score for any clinical school in the country.

The partnership between the Trust, the University and the Medical Research Council has also conceived the ambitious masterplan, the 2020 Vision, for the long-term development of the campus as an international centre for biomedical research.

The willingness of Cambridge researchers and doctors to collaborate across the disciplines and specialties, in partnerships with other institutions and with industry, underpins its strength in medical research. It is this innovative and collaborative approach that has made it successful in the past and it is the same approach that will in the future provide the basis for radical new forms of prevention, treatment and cure.

Cambridge University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust