MRC and Clinical Research in Wales

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MRC and Clinical Research in Wales Sir Leszek
Borysiewicz Medical Research Council Foundation
for Science and Technology, 20 May 2009
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MRC mission

• Encourage and support high-quality research with
  the aim of improving human health
• Produce skilled researchers
• Advance and disseminate knowledge and technology
  to improve the quality of life and economic
  competitiveness in the UK and worldwide
• Promote dialogue with the public about medical
  research

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The MRC journey Basic science as the bedrock

• 28 Nobel prizes spread across the Nobel
  categories of Physiology or Medicine and
  Chemistry.
• The MRCs core offering
• World-class basic biomedical research
• Interdisciplinary interface with the Research
  Councils
• Embracing translation

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MRC funding

• MRC operating expenditure - 625.4m in 07/08
• 300 new grants to researchers 236 million on
  grants and training awards in universities and
  medical schools
• 343 million for over 500 programmes in our
  research units and institutes over 2000
  publications in peer-reviewed journals
• Licensing income receipts of 85.4 million
  through MRCT 384 million total cash generated
  since 1998
• People
• Over 4000 people in our own units, institutes and
  centres
• 72.2 million on training and career development
• 107 new fellowships, 450 new post-graduate
  students

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MRC funding in Wales

• MRC funding for research in Wales- 6.9m in 07/08
• 1.2 of total MRC spend
• Wales has 5 of UK population
• Comprising
• Grants 4.75 million
• Studentships 1.15 million
• Institutes / establishments 0 million

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MRC Grant Funding in Wales 2007/08 by UKCRC
Health category
Total grants approx 35million
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MRC Grant Funding in Wales 2007/08 by UKCRC
Research activity
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The MRC journey structural change
Strategy Board

• Large scale funding
• Strategic funding
• Allocation of resources

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The MRC journey Embracing translation

• What is it? - turning discoveries into clinical
  benefits, while maintaining the basic research
  that drives it
• MRCs translational strategy
• builds on the MRCs existing role in pushing
  forward basic knowledge to improve peoples
  health and wealth
• strengthens the support and oversight of the
  translational processes

Prototype discovery and design
Basic medical research
Late clinical trials
Early clinical trials
Pre-clinical development
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MRC translational activities
TSB
Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme
Developmental Clinical Studies
Translational Research Support
Translational Stem Cell Research Programme
NIHR
Basic research
Prototype discovery and design
Pre-clinical development
Early clinical trials
Late clinical trials
Targeted initiatives to alleviate bottlenecks
Continued commitment to basic lab, clinical and
population research
Infrastructure/Resources
Capacity building
Methodology
Training
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Current foci of MRC activity
Discovery and Exploratory Research
Application and Delivery Research
MRC Translational
MRC lead NIHR lead
Genetics/genomics Structural biology Imaging Syste
ms medicine Global health Ageing lifecourse Stem
cells Infections Population science
Pharmacogenomics Animal/human models Regenerative
medicine
Programmes in Applied research Research for
Patient Benefit Invention for Innovation Service
Delivery and Organisation
Experimental medicine Methodology Global
health Stratified medicine
HTA Trials EME Trials(Late stage III)
Public health E-health
CSO (Scotland) WORD (Wales)
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The MRC journey Health Research Opportunities

• A Cooksey challenge
• 1 Health Departments review impact of disease
• 2 Meeting to identify scientific opportunities
  at Mar Hall
• Mar Hall group identified 10 key areas for
  maximum impact in public health
• Used to inform development of MRC strategic plan

• Stratification of phenotype
• Regeneration and replacement
• Tracking response to intervention
• Measure, understand and modify environmental and
  inherited influences on health
• Exploitation of world leading position in
  hypothesis-generating science to deliver improved
  health
• Early detection of the opportunity for effective
  intervention
• Primary prevention
• Behaviour modification
• Understanding the burden of illness
• Development of new interventions

www.mrc.ac.uk/about/strategy/healthresearchopportu
nities
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A new Strategic Plan for the MRC

• Consultation with over 500 stakeholders
• A non-prescriptive agenda
• Leading and influencing
• Partnership agenda

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Research changes lives

• Strategic Aim 1
• Picking research that delivers Setting research
  priorities which are most likely to deliver step
  changes in the potential for improved health
  outcomes
• Strategic Aim 2
• Research to people Bringing the benefits from
  excellent research to all sections of society
• Strategic Aim 3
• Going global Securing progress in international
  medical research
• Strategic Aim 4
• Supporting our scientists Supporting and
  sustaining a robust and flourishing environment
  for world class medical research.

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MRC Strategic Plan 2009-2014

• Strategic aim 1Picking research that delivers
  Setting research priorities which are most
  likely to deliver step changes in the potential
  for improved health outcomes

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Strategic aim 1

• Research priority theme 1
• Resilience, Repair and Replacement
• Natural protection
• To explore built-in resilience to disease and
  degeneration, determining
• how such mechanisms might be used to produce new
  interventions for
• ameliorating disease processes
• Tissue disease and degeneration
• To advance knowledge in the biology of ageing
  and degeneration of human tissue
• Repair and replacement
• To translate the burgeoning knowledge in stem
  cell biology and other replacement and
  regeneration mechanisms into new treatment
  strategies
• Mental health and wellbeing
• To explore the inter-relationship between mental
  wellbeing and resilience to disease processes

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Strategic aim 1

• Research priority theme 2
• Living a long and healthy life
• Genetics and disease
• Using next generation genetics with more
  sophistication and lower cost, imaging, and
  biomarkers to
• Understand genetic predispositions for disease,
  in the setting of complex traits and in the
  modulation of simple ones
• Align the development and use of treatments with
  specific subtypes of disease
• Lifecourse
• To drive forward inter-disciplinary working in
  life-course research
• Lifestyles affecting health
• Determining the most effective strategies for
  tackling lifestyles which are detrimental to
  health
• Environment and health
• Exploring the impacts of changes in our
  environment on health and wellbeing

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MRC Strategic Plan 2009-2014

• Strategic aim 2Research to People Bringing
  the benefits of excellent research to all
  sections of society

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Strategic aim 2

• Research to people Bringing the benefits from
  excellent research to all sections of society.
• Translation of research
• Ensuring translation of the research effort into
  health and commercial outcomes new products,
  policies, procedures
• Regulation, ethics, governance and working with
  decision-makers
• To uphold and guide ethical research practice
  and the highest standards of research governance,
  to enhance the regulatory process by providing
  innovative approaches
• Communication
• Enhancing communication between scientists,
  policy makers, advocators and the public

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MRC Strategic Plan 2009-2014

• Strategic aim 3Going global Securing
  progress in international medical research

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Strategic aim 3

• Going global Securing progress in international
  medical research
• Partnerships and agenda shaping
• To provide international leaderships in
  partnerships which enhance the competitiveness of
  the UK knowledge and health base
• Global health
• To support global health research that addresses
  the inequalities in health which arise
  particularly in developing countries

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MRC Strategic Plan 2009-2014

• Strategic aim 4Supporting scientists
  Sustaining a robust and flourishing environment
  for world-class medical research

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Strategic aim 4

• Supporting our scientists Sustaining a robust
  and flourishing environment for world-class
  medical research
• Capacity
• To strengthen research capacity through training
  and development
• Use of population-based data
• To fully exploit the complexity and benefits of
  population data, to maximise sharing and linkage
  of data and to develop data collection and
  storage
• Research environment
• Providing a world-class research environment

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Measuring success

• A new approach to capturing output
• We will deliver a minimum of four major strategic
  evaluations a year
• We will work in partnership with universities to
  offer information needed to maximise the value of
  the support they receive from the MRC.

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MRC and cancer research
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MRC spend - 2007
MRC spend 89.3 million
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Current MRC priorities in cancer research

• Research on the highest priority site specific
  diseases (e.g. lung cancer early diagnosis,
  screening and biomarkers prostate cancer)
• Radiotherapy/radiobiology
• Imaging particularly Positron Emission
  Tomography (PET) diagnosis, staging and wider
  uses
• Identification of potential markers/agents/therap
  eutic targets to feed into experimental medicine
• Supportive and palliative care
• Research to complement the aims of the NCRI

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NCRI Partnership working

• The National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) is
  a partnership between the government, charity and
  industry which promotes co-operation in cancer
  research among the 21 member organisations.
• NCRI - strategic oversight of cancer research in
  the UK, identifies gaps and opportunities
  co-ordinates the funding activities of the
  partner organisations.
• Recent priority areas identified by the NCRI
  partners
• National Prevention Research Initiative (NPRI)
• Supportive and Palliative Care
• Prostate Cancer Collaboratives
• Radiotherapy/Radiobiology
• Lung cancer
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning

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MRC grant funding for cancer research in Wales
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UK Health Research Opportunities Neurological,
mental health and special senses
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Addiction

• UK Government spends 15 billion pa on
  drug-related harms.
• Young people in UK amongst heaviest drug users in
  Europe.
• Alcohol major and increasing problem and high
  priority for Government.
• Although recent advances include good animal
  models and knowledge of the brain receptor
  targets, there is still a need to increase
  understanding of the mechanisms of the neural
  basis of addiction.
• Scientific competitiveness of the UK is good in
  relation to Europe and Asia, but USA has huge
  (1bn) budget for addiction research.
• MRC has initiated a new initiative in addiction
  building research clusters, need to attract
  expertise from other fields

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Neurodegeneration and dementia research
opportunities

• Genome analysis - identification of therapeutic
  targets.
• Mechanisms and pathogenesis.
• Role of cognitive dysfunction.
• Stratification
• Symptomatic management quality of life.
• Safety of new and extended therapies
• Markers, especially pre-symptomatic and early
  disease.
• Epidemiology linked to genomics etc to allow very
  early, pre-symptomatic intervention.
• Second generation therapies e.g. stem cells
  complex interventions

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Stratified medicine

• MRC lead
• Academy of Medical Sciences report Optimising
  stratified medicines RD
• NOT personalised medicine
• The better targeting of interventions to
  well-defined subgroups of patients

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How we will deliver

• Identify, align and prioritise research -
  industry and academia.
• Align investment (MRC, NIHR, TSB, Industry -
  charities?)
• Validate evidence for sub-type, mechanism etc
• Support development of stratification tools
• Markers of disease/severity etc
• Diagnostics
• Imaging
• Stratification methodologies
• Build infrastructure and shared resources
• Cohorts
• Clinical trial samples
• Tissue banks
• Develop methodology for regulation and economic
  models
• Funding provision 10-15m in 2010

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The MRC and Wales

• For universities a change in the nature of the
  relationship with MRC
• Response-mode funding
• Focussing on strength
• Strategic funding provides a new way of working
  e.g SATRE, Centres and DPFS
• Using Wales presence at OSCHR to influence
  strategic direction
• MRC partnerships with the Welsh Assembly
  Government/WORD to influence priorities
• Build on research excellence