The Medical Research Council (MRC) has opened a new Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), worth £120m, at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s Hammersmith hospital.
The institute is one of two laboratories in the UK that is wholly funded by the MRC.
Commissioned by the LMS with investment from Imperial College London, the new eight-story building houses 400 scientists who work across themes including genes and the environment, heart and metabolic diseases and sex-based differences in diseases.
It was designed to amplify the institute’s ability to bridge the gap between scientists exploring fundamental biological mechanisms as well as those translating that work into clinical applications.
Professor Wiebke Arlt, LMS director, takes a new approach to research with a challenge-led team science approach, designed to build dynamic collaborations around specific biomedical challenges, co-designed with a variety of stakeholders such as scientists, clinicians, patients and the public.
This approach is the first ever to be seen applied in a research strategy for a core-funded UK government institute.
Arlt commented: “Our new building’s design fosters an environment highly suited to team science that transcends disciplinary boundaries, bringing together clinical and non-clinical scientists in a shared space designed for collaboration, training and mentorship.”
Key facilities within the new institute include the fly lab, where researchers are currently exploring factors that underpin ageing and the metabolism, and how they translate to human health and disease.
It also includes another lab where researchers use video game technology to stretch a single strand of DNA to explore how tension and coiling affect our genes and a cardiac imaging facility, which houses a new artificial intelligence tool to detect signs of ageing in the heart.
Patrick Chinnery, executive chair of MRC, said: “As one of MRC’s flagship institutes, LMS underscores the importance of long-term investment in science infrastructure, and particularly MRC’s commitment to research relevant for human health.”
