We are the only centre in the UK to have brought together, under the same roof, a group of world-leading medical and scientific experts in human ageing, trauma and major illnesses with the same driver: inflammation.
Our partnership between the NHS and University brings basic scientists, clinicians and patient partners together to break down traditional bench to bedside, bedside to bedside and primary care-secondary care divisions that have prevented a truly integrated, multidisciplinary, patient-centred approach to treating chronic inflammation and ageing, an approach highly endorsed by patients.
This enables us to transform the way these chronic, debilitating and life-threatening conditions are studied, prevented and treated. Patients often suffer from more than one chronic inflammatory condition and so instead of looking at them separately, we consider them collectively. In this way we identify the major common drivers of ill health that can then be tackled to improve overall health rather than treating each disease individually. By working side-by-side, our specialists not only learn from each other, but they are also able to provide a holistic approach to treating patients.
Our innovative work also includes trauma – and we are at the vanguard of new ways to help patients of all ages to recover from serious injury.
We have won four Centres of Excellence awards in as many years, the MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research, the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Rheumatoid Pathogenesis, the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre and the Scar Free Foundation. In 2016 we were awarded over £12 million for an NIHR BRC in Inflammation research. In total these awards bring in over £30 million of vital funding.