UK Regenerative Medicine Platform

Co-funding

Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)

Funding total

Approximately £25M.

No. of projects funded

Not yet awarded.

Purpose

To address the technical and scientific challenges associated with translating promising scientific discoveries in this area towards clinical impact.

To ensure that research addressing regenerative medicine connects seamlessly from discovery science through to clinical and commercial application this fund also hopes to achieve the following goals:

Establishing interdisciplinary research hubs with the critical mass and expertise to address the key knowledge-gaps in the translation of stem cell and regenerative biology towards application
Providing the novel tools, platform technologies and engineering solutions needed for therapeutic development
Creating a world-leading and fully connected national programme to pull through excellent discovery science in support of the commercial development and clinical delivery of regenerative medicine products

Key aims

Safety science: for example addressing cell and genomic stability during differentiation and scale-up, the tracking of transplanted or modified cells in vivo, cell encapsulation and immobilisation technologies, the establishment of model systems able to recapitulate relevant human physiology, either in animals or in tissue-equivalent assays
Immunomodulation: harnessing the immune response to avoid rejection of cellular transplants or acellular interventions, encompassing immune suppression, immunological tolerance, and immune privilege
Engineering challenges and technology platforms: for example to undertake high throughput testing and phenotyping, to address metrology and quality control issues in biomanufacturing, to deliver system biology analyses, to establish novel cell imaging technologies
Cell functionality: for example to provide assays and readouts representative of human physiological systems, to better understand the role of stem cell niches in delivering function, and the promotion of cell maturation
Acellular technologies: the development of smart scaffolds and matrices, for structural support and the direction of propagation and differentiation
Delivery systems: to better target the delivery of cells, biologics or small molecules to their regenerative targets within tissues or organs

Contact

Colin Miles, Head of Strategy Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy
colin.miles@bbsrc.ac.uk
tel: 01793 413359