Completed Cells, Biochemistry & Physiology Genetics & Molecular Biology

Cellular Medicine at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research.

Funder Wellcome Charity-funded
Recipient organisation University of Cambridge
Funding £4.7M
Period Dec 2012 — Dec 2018

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

A Cambridge research institute is buying microscopes, computers, and hiring seven and a half specialist staff to keep its cell biology labs running at world-class level. This is not a single experiment but a request for core infrastructure. The Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) studies how cells work when they are healthy and what goes wrong in disease. To do that, its scientists need expensive kit—X-ray crystallography machines to see protein shapes, super-resolution microscopes to watch molecules move inside living cells, and computers to store the torrents of data those machines produce. The grant also funds annual retreats and visits from an international advisory board to keep the institute’s science connected and competitive. If this succeeds, the institute will remain a place where fundamental cell biology can happen. That matters because most medical treatments—from cancer drugs to gene therapies—grew out of basic discoveries about how cells divide, signal, or die. This grant does not promise a specific cure. It buys the quiet, unglamorous machinery and people that make those discoveries possible.

View original technical description
The aims of this proposal are to provide core support for the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) and to create a Wellcome Trust Centre for Cellular Medicine that builds on the existing strengths in Cell Biology as applied to Medicine within the CIMR. Specifically we request: (i) new equipment for in house X-ray crystallography, data storage, super resolution microscopy, surface plasmon resonance and a critical point dryer; (ii) funding for 7.5 core scientific support staff (1 in microscopy, 1 in flow cytometry, 1 in support of biophysical techniques, 2.5 in proteomics and 2 in bioinformatics); (iii) an equipment maintenance budget and consumables associated with the use of core equipment in line with our previous Strategic Award; (iv) funds to promote scientific exchange across disciplines within the CIMR and for recruitment. This includes support for annual research retreats, biennial research reports, biennial visits of the international scientific advisory bo ard plus advertising and travel for potential new Principal Investigators; (v) funds for one day research retreats aimed at strengthening links between the CIMR and other Wellcome Trust funded institutes in the Cambridge area These facilities and funds will provide a research environment in cellular medicine with outstanding core facilities and support.

View the original record at the funder ↗

Researchers

Gillian Griffiths (EPMC Awardee)

Related Research

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A Chemical Imaging Platform for Discovery Biosciences (CIP-DB).

Original classification

Strategic Award - Science

Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.