Experimental medicine
Birmingham has built a reputation for developing cutting-edge treatments, including pioneering approaches to cell and gene therapies and personalised medicine.
Our expansive research infrastructure – including the Centre for Rare Diseases – gives us a deep understanding of Birmingham’s major health challenges and enables us to predict disease trajectories and responses to treatment; identify cellular mechanisms of disease; and drive translational experimental medicine programmes integrating with national and international consortia and industry.
Working together across our partners, our aim is to ensure that research is rapidly translated into clinical trials and rolled out to our communities.
Explore our experimental medicine capabilities
Birmingham’s Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC), led by the University of Birmingham’s Professor Gary Middleton, is committed to developing and delivering the next generation of personalised therapies. It has an international reputation for innovation in this field, driving the development of novel, stratified medicine studies, and benefits from collaborations with the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit and Genomics Birmingham.
The Clinical Research Facility (CRF) is a purpose-built unit where study participants take part in research programmes safely according to robust, ethically approved trial protocols. More than 400 active trials are currently running through both the adult and paediatric facilities at the CRF, which generate more than 15,000 research appointments per year.
The Birmingham BRC is one of 20 NHS and University partnerships funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) from December 2022 to November 2027. Its research programme focuses on inflammation and the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of its associated long-term illnesses.
Hosted by the University of Birmingham, the HBRC provides a simple, efficient, and high-quality way to collect, store, and distribute human samples and data for research according to regulatory requirements. In doing so, it seeks to enable a better understanding of diseases and their progress in order to improve treatments and outcomes for all.
The Medicines Manufacturing Facility (MMF) at the University of Birmingham is comprised of two complimentary units with the shared objective of facilitating high quality translational research. Its Cell Therapy Suite manufactures cell- and tissue-based therapies while the Microbiome Treatment Centre s dedicated to the production of Faecal Microbiota Transplants.
Based at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and established thanks to a legacy gift by the late Mr Michael Dubrowsky, the facility includes a tissue culture lab and analytical lab including high throughput microscopy.
The Mental Health Mission Midlands Translational Centre (MHMTC) aims to accelerate mental health research capacity by developing digital registries, building on regional leadership and facilities, and supporting the development of new industrial partnerships. The Centre has an initial clinical focus on new precision interventions for early psychosis (EP) and treatment resistant depression (TRD).