10 December 2007

Medical Research Council award £2.8 million to University research centre

The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) has awarded the University of Sheffield £2.8 million in a new partnership supporting research into the genetic basis of a wide range of human disorders, including atherosclerosis, chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Many human diseases involve complex interactions between different cell types, tissues and organ systems that cannot easily be reproduced in the tissue culture dish. The principal strategy of the new MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics at the University of Sheffield is to use simple non-mammalian organisms, such as a tropical fish or the fruit fly, to generate whole animal models of the genetic dysfunctions underlying human disease. This approach is based on the remarkable discovery that these organisms share many cellular processes and have many genes in common with humans.

Located within the state-of-the-art Integrated Life Sciences Laboratories at the heart of the University, the new MRC Centre provides a distinct interdisciplinary environment in which developmental geneticists work together with clinician scientists to generate these novel disease models. The Centre also provides an outstanding environment in which to train the next generation of clinical researchers, a fact recognised by the inclusion of ring fenced funds for clinically qualified PhD students as part of the award.

Researchers at the centre have already pioneered the use of the tropical zebrafish to establish a model of the inflammatory response, in which the behaviour of specialised immune cells called neutrophils can for the first time be visualised non-invasively within a living organism. Discoveries such as this are paving the way for a better understanding of the processes underlying many conditions, ranging from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to cancer, and provide a basis for the discovery of new therapeutic agents for treating such debilitating conditions.

Professor Philip Ingham FRS Hon.FRCP, founding Director of the MRC Centre at Sheffield, said: "Since the award of a Centre Development grant by the MRC in 2004 we have already taken significant steps towards understanding the genetic mechanisms underlying a number of human disease processes. The granting of MRC Centre status marks an important new milestone and reinforces the University of Sheffield´s position as an internationally-recognised centre of excellence in biomedical research."

"The research carried out in the Centre has major implications for understanding the root causes of a range of human disorders such as Parkinson´s disease, asthma and cardiovascular disease. There is a pressing need for new therapies for these conditions and by bringing world-class scientists and clinicians together under the same roof the Centre aims to develop novel routes to the development of such therapies."