̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Nick Morrell

New Heart and Lung Research Institute opens

cjb250 — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 06:31:58 +0000

A major new institute opens today, bringing together the largest concentration of scientists and clinicians in heart and lung medicine in Europe.

Ground-breaking ceremony celebrates start of construction work on new Heart and Lung Research Institute in Cambridge

cjb250 — Thu, 27 Feb 2020 10:23:56 +0000

̽��ֱ��HLRI, a joint venture between the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, aims to focus on collaboration between research and its clinical use in treating patients for chronic diseases such as heart attacks, cystic fibrosis, atrial fibrillation and pulmonary hypertension.

In the UK, one in every four deaths is caused by cardiovascular disease and 20% of deaths by respiratory disease. Despite a growing awareness of risk factors, such as smoking and poor diet, the prevalence of such diseases is increasing.

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease causes nearly 18 million deaths per year, mostly due to heart attacks and stroke, with respiratory disease just behind. ̽��ֱ��combined worldwide cost of this is more than £840billion each year.

“ ̽��ֱ��Heart and Lung Research Institute is an incredible opportunity to bring together the ̽��ֱ��’s expertise in cardiovascular and respiratory science and Royal Papworth Hospital’s expertise in treating heart and lung disease,” said Professor Nick Morrell from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, who is Interim Director of the Institute.

“Heart and lung diseases affect many millions of people worldwide and the numbers are growing. Institutes such as ours, focused on these big health challenges, are urgently needed. ̽��ֱ��discoveries made by our researchers will deliver major benefits to the public through improvements in public health, new approaches to diagnosing and treating disease, and new medicines.”

Features of the Institute include: a new laboratory space; a clinical research facility; a collaboration space for link-ups between academia, healthcare providers and industry; and education facilities such as seminar rooms and a lecture theatre. It will also include a special 10-bed facility where the first-in-patient studies of new treatments can be conducted.

Professor John Wallwork, Chairman of Royal Papworth, added: “ ̽��ֱ��Heart and Lung Research Institute will mean new treatments will be created, tested and delivered to tackle the biggest causes of premature death in the world all on one site. It will also allow us to provide much more education and training to clinicians tackling heart and lung disease worldwide.

“This will be a huge step forward and demonstrates one of the reasons Royal Papworth Hospital moved to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – to collaborate with the best researchers in the world to help to save lives. Through the Heart and Lung Research Institute, we will be able to make even quicker progress in bringing tomorrow’s treatments to today’s patients.”

Funding for HLRI is being provided by the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund, which has contributed £30m, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and the Wolfson Foundation. ̽��ֱ��British Heart Foundation has donated £10m towards the project and Royal Papworth Hospital Charity has launched its largest ever appeal to raise £5m.

Professor Wallwork added: “Every day at Royal Papworth Hospital we see the positive impact that research can have for patients with heart and lung disease, both in terms of improving life expectancy and quality of life. We have already received a number of generous donations from Royal Papworth Hospital patients and their families in support of the Heart and Lung Research Institute and will be working hard to raise additional funds over the next few years.”

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation said: “Through this funding we will help create a fantastic centre that will have a key role in driving forward our ambitious programme of heart and circulatory research. By bringing together world-leading scientists it will enable exciting opportunities for collaboration between researchers from different disciplines. And it will also accelerate the transformation of discoveries in the laboratory to treatments available at patients’ bedside.

“This grant is one of the largest the BHF has ever made and we have only been able to make this investment because of the incredible generosity of the public.”

̽��ֱ��Cystic Fibrosis Trust has also committed to raise up to £5million to fund the Cystic Fibrosis Innovation Hub, which launched last year and will transfer to the new building once it has been completed. AstraZeneca will pursue integrated research programmes with the Institute to maximise translational impact.

Groundwork began back in October 2019 with construction starting in January 2020. Piling work for the 22m deep foundations is currently underway, including the formation of a tunnel, which will link the HLRI to neighbouring Royal Papworth Hospital.

There are currently 35 people working on the site with that number due to reach more than 150 at the peak of construction, which is set for completion in early 2022.

Press release from Royal Papworth Hospital.

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and Royal Papworth Hospital held an official ground-breaking ceremony at the new Heart and Lung Research Institute (HLRI) in Cambridge earlier today. ̽��ֱ��Institute is based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and will create the largest cardiothoracic centre for research, education, industry collaboration, and clinical care in Europe.

̽��ֱ��Heart and Lung Research Institute is an incredible opportunity to bring together the ̽��ֱ��’s expertise in cardiovascular and respiratory science and Royal Papworth Hospital’s expertise in treating heart and lung disease

Nick Morrell

Royal Papworth Hospital

Groundbreaking for the new Heart and Lung Research Institute

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Cambridge Heart and Lung Research Institute receives major funding boost

cjb250 — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 15:10:21 +0000

̽��ֱ��Institute will draw together the highest concentration of heart and lung researchers from academia, healthcare and industry in Europe. It has set an ambitious five-year target to demonstrate proof-of-concept for at least ten new drugs or diagnostic approaches in heart and lung diseases.

̽��ֱ��HLRI will be situated next to Royal Papworth Hospital, which was officially opened by HM the Queen on 9 July, and forms part of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the centrepiece of the largest biotech cluster outside the United States of America. It will be home to over 380 scientists and state-of-the-art laboratories in genomics, population sciences, research into cellular mechanisms of disease and translational science. It will also include a special ten bed facility where the first-in-patient studies of new treatments can be conducted.

“This is an incredibly exciting project bringing together world-renowned expertise in cardiovascular and respiratory science at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� and clinical excellence at Royal Papworth Hospital,” says Professor Nick Morrell from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, Interim Director of the institute and a non-Executive Director of Royal Papworth Hospital.

“Heart and lung diseases affect many millions of people of people worldwide and the numbers are growing. Institutes such as ours, focussed on these big health challenges, are urgently needed. ̽��ֱ��discoveries made by our researchers will deliver major benefits to the public through improvements in public health, new approaches to diagnosing and treating disease, and new medicines.”

Professor John Wallwork, Chairman of Royal Papworth Hospital, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Heart and Lung Research Institute will mean new treatments will be created, tested and delivered to tackle the biggest causes of premature death in the world all on one site. This will be a huge step forward and demonstrates one of the reasons Royal Papworth Hospital moved to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus – to collaborate with the best researchers in the world to help to save lives. ̽��ֱ��importance of this building cannot be underestimated and I can’t wait to see how it will transform healthcare in the years to come.”

Image: Cambridge Heart and Lung Research Institute (artist's impression)

̽��ֱ��award is one of 11 announced from flagship capital investment scheme the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund, totalling over £670m of new investment into UK research and innovation. It complements £10 million of funding committed to the institute by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). Further funding will be provided by the ̽��ֱ�� and Royal Papworth Hospital, and the Wolfson Foundation.

̽��ֱ��BHF award, which contributes to the capital cost of the building, is one of the charity’s largest ever strategic award. ̽��ֱ��charity has also committed an additional £6m in funding for the BHF Cambridge Centre for Cardiovascular Research Excellence, which will be housed in the institute.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Through this funding we will help create a fantastic centre that will have a key role in driving forward our ambitious programme of heart and circulatory research. By bringing together world-leading scientists it will enable exciting opportunities for collaboration between researchers from different disciplines. And it will also accelerate the transformation of discoveries in the laboratory to treatments available at patients’ bedside.

“This grant is one of the largest the BHF has ever made and we have only been able to make this investment because of the incredible generosity of the public.”

̽��ֱ��Cystic Fibrosis Trust has also committed to raise up to £5 million to fund the Cystic Fibrosis Innovation Hub, which launched last year and will transfer to the new building once it has been completed. Both AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline will also embed integrated research hubs in the Institute to maximise translational impact.

Work on the HLRI will begin almost immediately, with ground-breaking taking place in November 2019 and construction starting in early 2020.

Without further medical advances, an estimated one in four people in the UK will die from heart or circulatory disease, while one in five will die from lung disease. Combined, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases cost over £840 billion worldwide every year.

Chris Skidmore, Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, announced on 10 July 2019 a £30 million award to the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge to support the new Cambridge Heart and Lung Research Institute (HLRI).

This is an incredibly exciting project bringing together world-renowned expertise in cardiovascular and respiratory science at Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� and clinical excellence at the Royal Papworth Hospital

Nick Morrell

Cambridge Heart and Lung Research Institute (artist's impression)

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Vice-Chancellor’s awards recognise the difference researchers make to society

cjb250 — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:44:35 +0000

̽��ֱ��announcement was made at a prize ceremony held at the Old Schools on 13 July. At the same event, one of Cambridge’s leading experts on EU law – and in particular, Brexit – received one of the Vice Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards for her work around the EU Referendum.

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, says: “I would like to offer my warm congratulations to the recipients of our Impact and Public Engagement Awards. These are outstanding examples that reflect the tremendous efforts by our researchers to make a major contribution to society.”

Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Awards

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Awards were established to recognise and reward those whose research has led to excellent impact beyond academia, whether on the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment or quality of life. Each winner receives a prize of £1,000 and a trophy, with the overall winner - Dr Alexander Patto from the Department of Physics – receiving £2,000.

This year’s winners are:

Overall winner: Dr Alexander Patto (Department of Physics)

WaterScope

Using an open-source flexure microscope, spin-out company WaterScope is developing rapid, automated water testing kits and affordable diagnostics to empower developing communities. Its microscopes are being used for education, to inspire future scientists from India to Colombia. Its open-source microscope is supporting local initiatives, with companies such as STIClab in Tanzania making medical microscopes from recycled plastic bottles.

Elroy Dimson (Judge Business School)

‘Active Ownership’: Engaging with investee companies on environmental and social issues

‘Active Ownership’ refers to commitment by asset owners and their portfolio managers to engage with the businesses they own, focusing on issues that matter to all stakeholders and to the economy as a whole, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns. By providing evidence to guide ESG strategy, Professor Dimson’s research has had a substantial impact on investment policy and practice.

Professor Nick Morrell (Department of Medicine)

From genetics to new treatments in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Severe high blood pressure in the lungs, known as idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, is a rare disease that affects approximately 1,000 people in the UK. ̽��ֱ��condition usually affects young women and average life expectancy is three to five years. Existing treatments improve symptoms but have little impact on survival. Professor Morrell has introduced routine genetic testing for this condition, and found that one in four patients carry a particular genetic mutation associated with more severe disease and worse survival. His research has identified new ways to treat the disease, the most promising of which is being commercialised through a university spin-out biotech company.

Professor Lawrence Sherman, Peter Neyroud, Dr Barak Ariel, Dr Cristobal Weinborn and Eleanor Neyroud (Institute of Criminology)

Cambridge Crime Harm Index

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Crime Harm Index is a tool for creating a single metric for the seriousness of crime associated with any one offender, victim, address, community, or prevention strategy, supplementing traditional measures giving all crimes equal weight. ̽��ֱ��UK Office of National Statistics credits the index as the stimulus to institute its own, modified version from 2017. Police use the Cambridge index to target highest-harm offenders, victims, places, times and days, differences in crime harm per capita differs across communities or within them over time, adding precision to decisions for allocating scarce resources in times of budget cuts.

Vice-Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards

̽��ֱ��Vice-Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards were set up to recognise and reward those who undertake quality engagement with research. Each winner receives a £1000 personal cash prize and a trophy. This year’s winners are:

Professor Catherine Barnard (Faculty of Law)

In the run up to the EU membership referendum Professor Barnard developed a range of outputs to explain key issues at stake including migration, which forms the basis of her research, in addition to the wider EU law remit. Harnessing the timeliness of the political climate, Barnard’s videos, online articles, radio and TV interviews have supported her engagement across 12 town hall events from Exeter to Newcastle, an open prison and round-table discussions with various public groups. She has also provided a number of briefing sessions to major political party MPs and peers. She has become a trusted public figure, and researcher, on EU law, Brexit and surrounding issues, ensuring that the voices of those key to the research process are heard and listened to.

Dr Elisa Laurenti (Wellcome/MRC Stem Cell Institute and Department of Haematology)

Dr Laurenti has engaged over 2,500 people, at six separate events, with her Stem Cell Robots activity. She collaborated with a researcher in educational robotics to produce this robot-based activity, which maps a stem cell’s differentiation to become a specific cell type. ̽��ֱ��activity has provided a platform for children, families and adults to discuss ethics and clinical applications of stem cell research.

Dr Nai-Chieh Liu (Department of Veterinary Medicine)

Dr Liu has developed a non-invasive respiratory function test for short-skulled dog breeds, including French bulldogs and pugs, which suffer from airway obstruction. She has engaged with dog owners by attending dog shows, dog club meetings and breeders’ premises to break down barriers between publics and veterinarians working to improve the health of these dogs. As a result of this engagement, the UK French bulldog club and the Bulldog Breed Council have adopted health testing schemes based on Dr Liu’s research.

Dr Neil Stott and Belinda Bell (Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation, Judge Business School)

Dr Stott and Miss Bell established Cambridge Social Ventures to embed research around social innovation into a practical workshop to support emerging social entrepreneurs. Since the first workshop in 2014, they have reached almost 500 people wanting to create social change by starting and growing a business. ̽��ֱ��team goes to considerable efforts to reach out to participants from non-traditional backgrounds and to ensure workshops are inclusive and accessible to a wide range of people by incorporating online engagement with work in the community.

Amalia Thomas (Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics)

Amalia Thomas researches photoelasticity, a property by which certain materials transmit light differently when subjected to a force. Amalia has developed an engaging exhibition for secondary school students comprising interactive elements, which uses photoelasticity to visualise force, work and power.

Dr Frank Waldron-Lynch, Jane Kennet and Katerina Anselmiova (Department of Medicine and Department of Clinical Biochemistry)

Since the commencement of their research programme to develop drugs for Type 1 Diabetes, Dr Waldron-Lynch, Ms Kennet and Ms Anselmiova have developed a public engagement programme to engage participants, patients, families, funders, colleagues, institutions, companies and the community, with the aim of ensuring that their research remains relevant to stakeholder needs. Amongst their outputs, the team has formed a patient support group in addition to developing an online engagement strategy through social media platforms. Most recently, they have collaborated with GlaxoSmithKline to offer patients the opportunity to participate in clinical studies at all stages of their disease.

An open source, 3D-printable microscope that forms the cornerstone of rapid, automated water testing kits for use in low and middle-income countries, has helped a Cambridge researcher and his not-for-profit spin-out company win the top prize in this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Impact Awards at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Nithi Anand

I drink because I'm thirsty

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Hope for first treatment targeting cause of debilitating heart and lung disease

cjb250 — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 09:11:54 +0000

Genetic evidence dating back to 2000, from research the BHF helped to fund, indicated that the absence or reduced activity of a particular protein, bone morophogenetic protein type II receptor (BMPR-II), leads to pulmonary arterial hypertension. BMPR-II is important to the normal function of the blood vessels of the lungs. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is thought to affect around 6,500 people in the UK.

In research published in Nature Medicine, BHF Professor of Cardiopulmonary Medicine Nick Morrell and colleagues report the first use a protein, called BMP9, to reverse the effects of reduced activity of BMPR-II and to reverse the disease itself. ̽��ֱ��study was conducted in mice and rats, but also using cells from patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a chronic and debilitating disease that affects the blood vessels in the lungs, leading to heart failure, and leaves sufferers feeling breathless and exhausted. Current treatments only target the symptoms and prognosis remains poor. ̽��ֱ��only effective cure is a lung, or heart and lung, transplant, which has associated risks and complications.

Once diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a person has a 30 per cent chance of dying within three years and the condition affects more women than men. Researchers speculate that this gender disparity is caused by pregnancy triggering the disease in genetically susceptible women or that oestrogen can affect the function of BMPR-II.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge team, with contributions from researchers at the ̽��ֱ�� of Lincoln, Switzerland and the US, searched for a BMP protein that could enhance the function of BMPR-II to target the condition. ̽��ֱ��researchers firstly trialled different BMP proteins on lung blood vessel cells grown in a dish. This process showed BMP9 to be most selective, and therefore less likely to have negative effects on other cells.

This study used the first animal model, a mouse, which closely mimics the human genetic form of the disease. Ultimately though, the team showed that BMP9 treatment reversed pulmonary arterial hypertension in three separate mouse and rat models. They found that the treatment works in mice with both the genetic from of the disease, and in acquired forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension, where the cause is unknown.

Professor Morrell, from the Department of Medicine at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, and Director of the BHF Cambridge Centre for Cardiovascular Research Excellence, said: “ ̽��ֱ��next step for our research is studies in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension – first, safety testing to ensure the compound can be given to people. But we’re confident of passing this phase because BMP9 exists naturally in the body. We’re just giving patients more of it.”

̽��ֱ��study has been welcome by the BHF, which funded the research. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associated Medical Director, said: “We’re very excited by these results. This condition is horrible and an effective treatment that prevents the need for a transplant would be a game-changer.

“Clinical trials of the treatment in patients are still needed but these findings, from years of research supported by the BHF, offer real promise of a cure.”

"A treatment can’t come soon enough."

Kath Graham, 53 years old from Stevenage, was collapsing almost daily and confined to a wheelchair because of the severity of her pulmonary arterial hypertension and the treatments for it, until she had a heart and lung transplant in September 2013. Before her transplant, she needed to have a continuous infusion of intravenous (IV) medications.

“It meant having a small pump, which I carried around on an elastic waistband. I had to prepare an infusion in a sterile environment twice a day and put that into a syringe attached to the pump which then infused the drug continuously through a permanent line fitted by the hospital.

“I didn’t have a choice because at that stage I was collapsing every few days. Just climbing out of bed, I would collapse and pass out so I had a sort of love/hate relationship with it. I knew the IV drugs were helping to keep me well until I could get a transplant but they also made me quite sick.

“I’m so grateful for my transplant but, it would have been so much better if I could have taken a medicine that worked and didn’t have the same side effects. ̽��ֱ��research happening at Cambridge, supported by the BHF, gives me some hope for all my friends who have pulmonary arterial hypertension. A treatment can’t come soon enough.”

Adapted from a press release from the British Heart Foundation.

Reference
Lu Long et al. Selective enhancement of endothelial BMPR-II with BMP9 reverses pulmonary arterial hypertension. Nature Medicine; 15 June 2015

A protein that targets the effects of a faulty gene could offer the first treatment targeting the major genetic cause of pulmonary arterial hypertension, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and carried out at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��next step for our research is studies in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension – first, safety testing to ensure the compound can be given to people. But we’re confident of passing this phase because BMP9 exists naturally in the body. We’re just giving patients more of it.

Nick Morrell

GreenFlames09

Lung model

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