Title: NIHR Guy's & St Thomas' BRC
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: Our BRC is a collaboration between one of the largest and most successful hospitals in the UK, Guy s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust (&ldquo;Guy s&rdquo;), and one of the world s top Universities, King s College London (&ldquo;King s&rdquo;). As one of only five inaugural Comprehensive BRCs in 2007, this partnership has delivered a step-change in delivery of world-leading Experimental Medicine. Our BRC is focused in nine areas, six from the current BRC (2012-2017) and three new themes. Our existing themes are Cardiovascular Disease, Cutaneous Medicine, Genomic Medicine, Infection & Immunity, Imaging Sciences and Transplantation. Our new themes are Women s & Children s Health, Oral Health and Regenerative Medicine & Cellular Therapy. All of these themes combine excellence in clinical care with outstanding science, underpinned by a commitment to training the next generation of clinicians and scientists, informed by early input from our large and diverse local population. Our BRC is unique amongst the other large BRCs across England in a number of ways: Firstly, it has a physical centre, co-located within an NHS Hospital environment. This has led to the creation of the Experimental Medicine Hub (EMH) in Guy s Tower, comprising over 10 floors of dedicated space for Experimental Medicine. We have a significant pipeline of novel therapies and tools for early diagnosis which will allow us to give the right therapy to the right patient at the right time. Secondly, the BRC is leading the UK s revolution in new approaches to therapy. We host the national centre for the manufacturing of advanced therapies, InnovateUK s Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult . We will create an Advanced Therapeutics Centre in the EMH to increase both the scale and the precision of our advanced therapies. We also propose to create a BRC Commercialisation and Innovation Hub across an additional floor of the EMH. This will enable the formation of spin-out companies and provide space for industrial partners to work closely with us and benefit from the class-leading infrastructure that the BRC has created to tackle healthcare issues. Together, this will create world-leading facilities for Experimental Medicine in the heart of London, serving a patient population of many millions. Finally, the BRC plays a central leadership role in the national research infrastructure. Guy s hosts the Clinical Research Network for South London and is the leading recruiter to clinical studies across the whole of England. We are the NHS host of the National Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre and are one of three founder Universities of the UK Centre for Medical Research, the Francis Crick Institute, which brings the best basic science to address human disease. Our ambition over the next five years is to become the leading Academic Hospital in the country and play an enhanced role in ensuring that the UK is the best place in the world to conduct Experimental Medicine. We will deliver our pipeline of novel therapies and diagnostics for maximum patient benefit and ensure that there is a clearly defined pathway for the uptake of effective treatments within the NHS and internationally.

Lay abstract: Our BRC is a collaboration between one of the largest and most successful hospitals in the UK, Guy s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust (&ldquo;Guy s&rdquo;), and one of the world s top Universities, King s College London (&ldquo;King s&rdquo;). As one of only five inaugural Comprehensive BRCs in 2007, this partnership has delivered a step-change in delivery of world-leading Experimental Medicine. Our BRC is focused in nine areas, six from the current BRC (2012-2017) and three new themes. Our existing themes are Cardiovascular Disease, Cutaneous Medicine, Genomic Medicine, Infection & Immunity, Imaging Sciences and Transplantation. Our new themes are Women s & Children s Health, Oral Health and Regenerative Medicine & Cellular Therapy. All of these themes combine excellence in clinical care with outstanding science, underpinned by a commitment to training the next generation of clinicians and scientists, informed by early input from our large and diverse local population. Our BRC is unique amongst the other large BRCs across England in a number of ways: Firstly, it has a physical centre, co-located within an NHS Hospital environment. This has led to the creation of the Experimental Medicine Hub (EMH) in Guy s Tower, comprising over 10 floors of dedicated space for Experimental Medicine. We have a significant pipeline of novel therapies and tools for early diagnosis which will allow us to give the right therapy to the right patient at the right time. Secondly, the BRC is leading the UK s revolution in new approaches to therapy. We host the national centre for the manufacturing of advanced therapies, InnovateUK s Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult . We will create an Advanced Therapeutics Centre in the EMH to increase both the scale and the precision of our advanced therapies. We also propose to create a BRC Commercialisation and Innovation Hub across an additional floor of the EMH. This will enable the formation of spin-out companies and provide space for industrial partners to work closely with us and benefit from the class-leading infrastructure that the BRC has created to tackle healthcare issues. Together, this will create world-leading facilities for Experimental Medicine in the heart of London, serving a patient population of many millions. Finally, the BRC plays a central leadership role in the national research infrastructure. Guy s hosts the Clinical Research Network for South London and is the leading recruiter to clinical studies across the whole of England. We are the NHS host of the National Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre and are one of three founder Universities of the UK Centre for Medical Research, the Francis Crick Institute, which brings the best basic science to address human disease. Our ambition over the next five years is to become the leading Academic Hospital in the country and play an enhanced role in ensuring that the UK is the best place in the world to conduct Experimental Medicine. We will deliver our pipeline of novel therapies and diagnostics for maximum patient benefit and ensure that there is a clearly defined pathway for the uptake of effective treatments within the NHS and internationally.

Research activity codes: 4.5 RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE (DETECTION)
Health categories: CARDIOVASCULAR