Respiratory Sciences, NHLI
Respiratory disease is a major cause of morbidity and death in the UK and worldwide. Asthma affects one child in seven in the UK and 300 million individuals worldwide. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth most common cause of death worldwide. Lung cancer is the commonest cancer in the UK. Respiratory infections account for 6% of global disease, even after excluding tuberculosis (TB). Cystic fibrosis is the most common single gene disorder of childhood.
Imperial College London enjoys a pre-eminent position nationally and internationally as a place of outstanding research into respiratory disease. This position is based on many factors, including its research track record and its excellent clinical service for patients with severe lung disease.
Respiratory Sciences at NHLI contains world-class groups investigating respiratory infections; tuberculosis; cell and leukocyte biology; airways and allergic diseases; integrative physiology and pharmacology; public health; and genetics and genomics.
Respiratory Sciences have won £107 million in external grants in the last five years, with the most significant components coming from The Wellcome Trust, the MRC and Industry. The Division is responsible for more than 50% of the United Kingdom’s publications in leading journals on respiratory research and in a recent independent review was rated the best in the world for respiratory science. The College itself ranks in the top three Universities in the UK, and the top five scientific universities in the world.
Novel research programmes currently being developed include genomic studies of lung cancer; molecular studies of bacteria and the lung; a comprehensive programme to study genetics of respiratory disease other than asthma; an international study of asthma in the developing world; a systematic genomic dissection of airway inflammation; parallel development of new methods for imaging airway inflammation; and a screening programme for respiratory phenotypes in MRC and Wellcome funded mutagenised and knockout mouse resources.
This clinical service that underpins Respiratory Sciences has been based historically at the Royal Brompton Hospital (RBHT), but a significant component is also found at St Mary’s hospital and other Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) sites. The RBHT is the leading UK tertiary referral centre for patients with advanced lung diseases, including severe asthma, severe COPD, sarcoidosis and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. The surgical service provides the principal UK facility for the resection of lung cancers, and 600 new cases of lung cancer are seen each year in combined clinics with the Royal Marsden Hospital. St Mary’s Hospital and the AHSC provide high-level services for patients with moderate asthma and COPD (who are important for clinical studies of both diseases). Both hospitals have strong links with the community, and with patients with early stage and potentially preventable disease.
The recent formal alliance between Imperial College, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and RBHT has created the Europe’s largest service for respiratory disease, with outstanding opportunities to undertake joint research studies with direct effect on clinical outcomes. The National Institute for Health Research funds translational research at Imperial College London through its general Biomedical Research Centre at the AHSC and a specialised respiratory Biomedical Research Unit at the RBHT.
The MRC and Asthma UK fund a Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma that encompasses activities at Imperial College and at King's College London. Leadership of the Centre will be through Imperial College from 2011. The Wellcome Trust supports the Centre for Respiratory Infection (CRI), led by Professor Peter Openshaw. The alliance between Imperial and the RBHT is supported by the NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit, and clinical respiratory research within the ICHT supported by the UK’s largest Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre.
