LifeArc and MRC partnership creates new £16m fund to establish Gene Therapy Innovation Hubs

Grants will pay for, but are not limited to, key staff posts and infrastructure costs. Awards may be of a range of sizes, from smaller awards of £1-2m to repurpose or import additional platforms to existing facilities, to larger grants of £5-7m for new or expanded centre infrastructure. LifeArc and the MRC will not seek any financial return on these grants

Funding will be awarded to UK-based research organisations that can:

• Provide academics with access to GMP grade viral vector production capability for early phase clinical trials
• Support translation of gene therapy projects from the academic lab into early clinical trials
• Coordinate innovative manufacturing research, drive generation of reproducible and shareable platforms and enable dissemination of knowledge – across a network of centres
• Design and share commercially ready platforms, using common cell-lines, plasmids and reagents, facilitating the transition between small scale ‘academic’ supply for phase I/II trials through to larger-scale downstream supply

The full call specification can be found here.

LifeArc is a self-funded medical research charity. Our mission is to advance translation of early science into health care treatments or diagnostics that can be taken through to full development and made available to patients. We have been doing this for more than 25 years and our work has resulted in a diagnostic for antibiotic resistance and four licensed medicines.

Our success allows us to explore new approaches to stimulate and fund translation. We have our own drug discovery and diagnostics development facilities, supported by experts in technology transfer and intellectual property who also provide services to other organisations. Our model is built on collaboration, and we partner with a broad range of groups including medical research charities, research organisations, industry and academic scientists. We are motivated by patient need and scientific opportunity.

Two funds help us to invest in external projects for the benefit of patients: our Philanthropic Fund provides grants to support medical research projects focused on the translation of rare disease research and our Seed Fund is aimed at start-up companies focused on developing new therapeutics and biological modalities.

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The Medical Research Council is at the forefront of scientific discovery to improve human health. Founded in 1913 to tackle tuberculosis, the MRC now invests taxpayers’ money in some of the best medical research in the world across every area of health. Thirty-three MRC-funded researchers have won Nobel prizes in a wide range of disciplines, and MRC scientists have been behind such diverse discoveries as vitamins, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer, as well as achievements such as pioneering the use of randomised controlled trials, the invention of MRI scanning, and the development of a group of antibodies used in the making of some of the most successful drugs ever developed.

Today, MRC-funded scientists tackle some of the greatest health problems facing humanity in the 21st century, from the rising tide of chronic diseases associated with ageing to the threats posed by rapidly mutating micro-organisms. The Medical Research Council is part of UK Research and Innovation. mrc.ukri.org