Biomedical Research
Molecular and translational research into the mechanisms of disease, and into turning that understanding into something clinically usable.
From mechanism to method
Biomedical research at the Center concentrates on the molecular basis of disease and on the translational step that follows it — the point at which a mechanism becomes a marker, and a marker becomes a test.
That translational step is where a great deal of promising work stalls. Identifying that a molecule is associated with a disease state is a scientific result; establishing that measuring it in an ordinary clinical sample gives a reliable, reproducible, affordable answer is a much longer piece of work. We are structured around finishing that second part, because it is what determines whether a finding ever affects a patient.
What biomedical research covers here
Molecular markers
Disease mechanisms
Translational studies
Clinical research
Assay development
Method validation
How this research is conducted
Conditions that apply to every biomedical study the Center undertakes.
- Studies proceed under appropriate ethical approval before any sample is collected
- Research involving human participants follows applicable regulatory requirements
- Sample handling, storage and chain of custody are documented
- Methods are recorded in enough detail for another laboratory to reproduce them
- Analysis plans are defined before data are examined, not fitted afterwards
- Limitations and negative findings are reported alongside positive ones
- Funding sources and competing interests are declared on every output
- Findings are disseminated on a non-profit basis
Current studies will be listed here
As biomedical research programmes are established and receive ethical approval, each will be described here with its aims, methods and collaborators. We will not list studies before they are approved and under way.
Collaborate on biomedical research
We welcome approaches from researchers and clinicians with questions that fit this work, and from institutions able to contribute samples, expertise or facilities.