Southampton researchers have been awarded £15m for their pioneering work in tackling obesity, asthma, allergies and infections.
Researchers and clinicians at Southampton’s university hospitals have been given the five-year funding by the Department of Health and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The arrangement will see the city’s pioneering nutrition and respiratory research brought together to form a new NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). It will take discoveries out of the lab and into the clinic, in a joint venture between the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust.
The new Centre will focus on nutrition and respiratory/critical care, as well as cross-cutting themes in data science, microbial and behavioural sciences.
The BRC will be led by Professor Robert Read, a consultant and professor in infectious diseases. Robert says:
This award represents an opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives and health, by combining Southampton’s unique strengths in nutrition and respiratory clinical research.
He continues: “Over the last decade we have built a world-class environment for taking discoveries from the lab and into the clinic. This NIHR award recognises that. It gives us the means to bring new treatments into care and improve not only our patients’ health, but also people across the region and nationwide.”
The announcement comes a week after University Hospital Southampton was named one of 12 digital centres of excellence by the Department for Health, which will see the trust receive £10m over four years for IT development.
