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Author: Louise Stanley

Health Innovation Minister champions Birmingham Health and Life Sciences Quarter at launch

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Cancer outcomes, Clinical trials, Early diagnosis and detection, Experimental medicine, Health inequalities, Inflammation and chronic disease, Maternal health, Mental health.

This week, Birmingham Health and Life Sciences Quarter held a launch event in the Houses of Parliament, showcasing the region’s outstanding research and innovation capability on a national stage.

The event, led by BHP founding-member the University of Birmingham, was supported by James Frith, Minister for Health Innovation, and hosted by Al Carns, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak. The launch brought together representatives from the NHS, research institutes, industry, investors and parliamentarians.

Birmingham Health and Life Sciences Quarter is a leading UK and international hub for health-related research and innovation. Centred on a square mile to the south of the city, the co-location of University of Birmingham’s Edgbaston campus, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham Women’s Hospital, the BioHub and Birmingham Health Innovation Campus, home to the University’s Precision Health Technologies Accelerator, provides the gravitational pull for world-class research expertise.

Slightly further afield, although still in the south of the city, the Birmingham Dental Hospital and the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital complete the set, making the Quarter home to no fewer than six members of Birmingham Health Partners – along with successful health and life sciences companies such as The Binding Site and Nonacus, which both started out at the University of Birmingham and put down roots in the city.

The Quarter bring together academic prowess, top clinical expertise and state-of-the-art research facilities, to create one of the UK’s most exciting life sciences start-up ecosystems. The tight geographic connection fosters collaboration, with the whole research pipeline possible in one place, from discovery science, right through to clinical trials and translational studies. From bench to bedside and back again, Birmingham has it all.

With health and life sciences totalling £1billion in research awards over a five-year cycle, the city is trusted to deliver. However, the real value is proximity and the connections made across the ecosystem, not simply the calibre and breadth of individual research project conducted.

Professor Neil Hanley, Medicine Health and Life Sciences, University of Birmingham, explained: “This isn’t a promise of what’s to come. We already have the capability, we have the outstanding facilities, we have the people, the coming together of academics, clinicians and industry start-ups. Birmingham is already achieving incredible things; world-first trials, one-of-a-kind studies, getting new treatments to patients before anywhere else in the world.”

Birmingham is one of the most diverse and youthful cities in Europe, with a genetic makeup and heritage that mean research findings are representative of patients across the globe. With access to 5 million people in the immediate vicinity, and a super-diverse patient population, research conducted in Birmingham is scalable in the real world.

Located in the centre of the country, Birmingham is well connected by transport links in the UK and beyond. It is also affordable, offering highly competitive rents for lab spaces, considerably lower than other cities with life sciences hubs, and better quality of life for researchers owing to significantly lower cost of living.

Al Carns, Birmingham Selly Oak MP,  the constituency home to Birmingham Health Innovation Campus highlighted this strength, saying: “With over 100 languages spoken across the city, Birmingham is home to the youngest, most diverse and most stable population in the UK. That combination matters enormously for health and life sciences. New treatments and technologies need to work for everyone, and too often they are tested on groups that don’t reflect the people who will ultimately use them.

“In Birmingham, researchers and companies can test and trial in a microcosm of the world, with communities who stay put long enough to be part of studies over many years. That gives the city a real advantage, and it is why Birmingham should be at the heart of the UK’s ambitions in this sector.”

James Frith, Minister for Health Innovation – a position that has responsibility for life sciences, research and innovation, medicines and medtech, and NHS data and technology – also spoke at the event. He highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts, the likes of which Birmingham exemplifies, allowing the UK to lead the way in the life sciences. He also endorsed Birmingham’s Health and Life Sciences Quarter as a powerful example of research, clinical expertise and commercial ambition all coming together.

The event itself marks the start of an exciting journey for the Quarter. The convening of the leading academics, clinicians, SMEs and large industry partners ignited conversations that will continue long beyond the launch celebration.

Professor Hanley closed the event by inviting event guests, potential industry partners and interested investors to come and see the Quarter for themselves, stating that “Birmingham is open for business”.

📽️ WATCH – introducing BHLSQ:

National fellowship marks major step for early-phase dementia research in Birmingham

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Clinical trials, Inflammation and chronic disease, Mental health.

BHP founder-member University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) is set to strengthen its role in dementia research following the award of a prestigious UK Dementia Trials Network (UKDTN) Clinical Trials Fellowship to consultant neurologist Dr Will Scotton.

The two-year fellowship, awarded through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)-funded UKDTN, will support Dr Scotton to develop expertise in delivering early-phase dementia trials and lay the foundations for a dedicated programme within the NIHR Birmingham Clinical Research Facility (CRF), based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), and the wider West Midlands region.

The fellowship is part of the UKDTN’s mission of making the UK the go-to place for early-phase dementia clinical trials by expanding workforce and research capacity beyond established centres.

Over the next two years, Dr Scotton will undertake specialist training in Phase 1a and Phase 1b dementia trials, working across leading research centres and clinical research facilities, including QEHB and the University College London Hospitals (UCLH).

For Birmingham and the wider Midlands, the fellowship represents an important step towards increasing opportunities for patients to take part in dementia research and access innovative treatments within the region.

Dhruv Parekh, Medical Director of Research and Innovation at UHB and Director of the NIHR Birmingham CRF, said: “This fellowship is an important milestone in our ambition to develop UHB’s capability in early-phase dementia research.

“We have the clinical expertise, research infrastructure and access to a diverse population needed to make a real difference, and Will’s fellowship will help us develop the specialist capability required to bring these trials to the region. It is an exciting opportunity for UHB, but most importantly, it will give more patients the opportunity to take part in cutting-edge dementia research closer to home.”

Birmingham is particularly well placed to support the next generation of dementia research. As one of the UK’s largest and most diverse cities, it provides access to a broad range of communities and patient groups. This diversity will help ensure that people taking part in dementia trials better reflect those affected by the condition, helping research to be more relevant to patients across the UK.

Dr Will Scotton said: “I am immensely grateful to Professor Catherine Mummery and the UK Dementia Trials Network for the opportunity this Fellowship provides, both personally and, most importantly, for people living with these devastating diseases across the West Midlands. I am also extremely grateful to Professor Dhruv Parekh and the wider UHB and Birmingham CRF team, alongside Professor Tonny Veenith at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, for supporting the Fellowship and our ambition to build the capacity and capability to deliver early-phase dementia trials in the region.

“With its ethnically diverse population, clinical expertise and existing research infrastructure, the West Midlands is something of a sleeping giant in the delivery in early-phase dementia research. I am excited to begin this work and improve access to these trials for patients who currently have limited opportunities to take part locally.”

Professor Catherine Mummery, UKDTN Director, said: “Building research capacity across the UK is central to our ambition of making the UK the go-to place for early-phase dementia trials. A network is nothing without the right people and this initiative aims to develop the trials leaders of the future, building a sustainable and forward-looking network.

“Dr. Scotton’s fellowship is an important step in developing specialist expertise in Birmingham and the West Midlands and creating more opportunities for people living with dementia to access innovative trials closer to home.”

The UK Dementia Trials Network (UKDTN) is a national initiative funded by the NIHR, with £50 million of national investment, aimed at strengthening the UK’s capacity to deliver dementia clinical trials.

Its work includes developing trial-ready sites, expanding the research workforce, improving participant diversity and strengthening partnerships with industry. Its ambition is to help establish the UK as a global leader in dementia research and accelerate the development of new treatments for people living with dementia.

Dr Scotton has recently established the West Midland Initiative for Neurodegeneration (We-MIND) at the University of Birmingham, a cross-speciality clinical-academic collaboration between neurologists and psychiatrists, funded by the Mason Legacy Bequest, the NIHR Regional Research Delivery Network, the PSP Association and the MSA Trust. This will create a clinical trials and research registry initially focused on frontotemporal lobar degeneration syndromes (Atypical parkinsonian syndromes including PSP, CBS and MSA, FTD and FTD–MND) with planned expansion to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, to enable earlier biomarker driven diagnosis and pathology-based stratification, and to generate robust regional estimates of incidence, prevalence and outcomes in the West Midlands’ large, ethnically diverse population.

BHP researchers find new approach to detect meningitis and encephalitis

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Early diagnosis and detection.

New research led by Aston University’s Dr Ghaniah Hassan-Smith has found a new technique to diagnose infections of the central nervous system, such as meningitis and encephalitis, which can be difficult to determine using conventional methods.

The method developed by Dr Hassan-Smith, clinical senior lecturer at Aston Medical School, and honorary consultant neurologist at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) and her BHP collaborators, is based on metagenomic sequencing – an existing and extremely sensitive genetic test – combined with a new and unique computational ‘filtering’ system to identify likely disease-causing bacteria and viruses from the complex information generated.

The cross-BHP research team included Dr Zaki Hassan Smith, clinical associate professor at Aston Medical School and consultant endocrinologist at UHB, and collaborators at the University of Birmingham – Professor Nicholas Loman, director of the Institute of Microbiology and Infection, Dr Joshua Quick, UKRI Future Leaders and Dr Nicola Cumley, clinical scientist.

Central nervous system infections can be serious and require rapid diagnosis and treatment. Usually, such infections are diagnosed by taking cerebrospinal fluid by lumbar puncture and combining knowledge of the patient’s symptoms with laboratory tests such as microscopy, microorganism culture and targeted polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for particular organisms. This requires the medical team to have some knowledge of what they are looking for.

In a substantial proportion of patients with a suspected central nervous system infection (over 50% in some settings, such as intensive care), no causative pathogenic organism is identified. This may be because the pathogen is unexpected, present only in small amounts, or because antibiotics or antiviral treatment have already been started.

Rather than testing for individual pathogens, metagenomic sequencing analyses all the genetic material present in a sample, takes out all the unnecessary genomic data and identifies DNA and RNA and which microorganisms it is likely to have come from. This means medical staff can look for many different bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms simultaneously, including unusual or unexpected pathogens. This is particularly relevant for central nervous system infections, where there can be major diagnostic challenges.

The researchers tested cerebrospinal fluid samples from patients with central nervous system infections, sourced from UHB, and compared them with non-infectious neurological control samples.

Samples can also be contaminated with other microorganisms, for example those found on skin or in laboratory reagents. This can lead to signals which appear disproportionately important. Dr Ghaniah Hassan-Smith and the team developed a series of filters to remove this ‘background noise’ based on bioinformatics. This is a technique that uses computational methods to understand biological data, in this case, the DNA and RNA signals from the fluid samples.

The filters are able to separate potentially meaningful pathogen signals from this background noise and so determine what the infectious agent is. The method brings together several pieces of sequencing information rather than relying on a single result.

Dr Ghaniah Hassan-Smith said: “Central nervous system infections such as meningitis and encephalitis can be extremely serious, but in many patients we never identify the organism responsible. Conventional tests are very good at finding the pathogens we suspect, but metagenomic sequencing gives us the exciting possibility of looking much more broadly, including for unusual or unexpected causes of infection.

“The difficulty is that looking for everything also means finding a lot of noise. Not every microbial signal detected in a sample represents a genuine infection, so interpreting these very complex datasets is one of the major challenges in bringing metagenomic sequencing into clinical practice.

“This isn’t intended to replace conventional microbiology. Rather, we hope the work contributes to developing more standardised ways of interpreting metagenomic sequencing and ultimately helps move this powerful technology closer to routine clinical practice.”

To read the full paper, ‘Pathogen detection in central nervous system infections: moving metagenomic sequencing closer to clinical practice’ in BMC Infectious Diseases, visit https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12879-026-13276-9.

Rapid genomic testing for brain tumours piloted in Birmingham

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Cancer outcomes, Early diagnosis and detection.

A world-first NHS pilot of a rapid genomic test that allows doctors to diagnose what type of brain tumour a patient has within 24 hours is being expanded across England, supported by a collaborative team in Birmingham.

Brain tumours are notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat, and there are more than 100 different types ranging from slow-growing tumours to aggressive cancers.

The standard diagnostic process involves MRI and CT scans followed by extracting a tumour sample. This is taken away for testing in a pathology lab which can take weeks to return a result and diagnose the tumour type.

The new test means that patients can receive a definitive brain tumour diagnosis in less than a day, rather than the current average of 26 days.

A two-year pilot has been made possible as part of a new Network of Excellence for Rapid Diagnosis in Brain Tumours, co-led by the NHS Central and South Genomic Medicine Service and NHS East Genomic Medicine Service, which has received £2.1m from NHS England. The pilot will explore the success and feasibility of offering the test within a clinical setting, with the aim of rolling out the test to all neuropathology centres in England to benefit all patients as soon as possible.

Dr Victoria Wykes, Associate Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Birmingham and Honorary Consultant Neurosurgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB), is now Clinical Lead of the new Network of Excellence for Rapid Diagnosis in Brain Tumours. She said: “Achieving a rapid diagnosis of brain tumours represents an absolute game-changer for our patients. It will reduce the time that patients and their loved ones have to wait to understand what the life-changing diagnosis means and accelerate the speed of accessing treatment, therapies and clinical trials. The test can also allow surgeons to receive the diagnosis during operations to remove tumours, enabling them to tailor the surgery according to the tumour type while the patient is still in theatre.

“Partners across Birmingham’s Health and Life Sciences Quarter will come together to play a vital role in leading the clinical operational delivery of this new genetic test within the NHS, evaluating its use in clinical settings where it will hopefully have incredible results for patients in Birmingham and the Midlands.”

BHP’s founding members the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (which operates QEHB), have the existing infrastructure needed to rapidly analyse tumour samples during surgeries. This is thanks to an established tissue pipeline and significant genomics expertise in brain cancer, already used for research.

The Birmingham-based team from the hospital and university will lead on examining and evaluating how to make clinical practice of the new test a reality, focusing on health economics, implementation science and genomic training within the programme.

Clinical leadership for the Network of Excellence comes from the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham, with scientific leadership from the University of Nottingham, whose researchers invented the test, and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. Teams across these establishments, as well as the South-East and North Thames Genomic Medicine Services, have all had a significant role in shaping the Network of Excellence.

Further expanding on the importance of feasibility testing, Dr Wykes explained: “Through the strength of our network, we will seek to validate the effectiveness of the tools for rapid genomic diagnosis of brain tumours, and determine how we make rapid diagnosis work in the real world. By the end of the programme, we will be able to make recommendations for the tools to be commissioned by the NHS, helping to unleash the full potential of this new test.”

The NHS England pilot builds on the successful pilot already underway in Birmingham and Nottingham and will initially take the technology into five specialist centres before expanding further across England.

The first phase will introduce the testing across University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Additional genomic laboratory sites in Bristol, Oxford, Leeds and Manchester will join in the second phase.

£50m funding to cure – rather than control – inflammatory diseases

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Experimental medicine, Inflammation and chronic disease.

Birmingham researchers are now part of the new £50m UKRI Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) for Restorative Immunology, seeking to find curative treatments for inflammatory diseases alongside team of leading scientists, doctors and patient research partners.

Diseases caused by chronic inflammation – such as arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver disease and Sjögren’s disease – currently require lifelong management. However, this new programme of research is aiming to kickstart a transformation in understanding the causes of inflammatory disease, with the ultimate aim of developing cures.

The MRC CoRE is funded for the next 14 years and is led by a team of investigators from across the UK and Japan, aiming to transform the lives of people facing debilitating immune-mediated diseases.

As well as being a major burden for individuals, chronic inflammation has a considerable impact on health services and the wider economy. These conditions arise when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues, including joints and the gut, skin, eyes, liver, and salivary glands, among many others. The resulting inflammation can cause irreversible tissue and organ damage, chronic pain and lifelong disability.

Despite major advances in treatment, many people, including those whose disease begins in childhood, require lifelong therapy to control inflammation and prevent further damage. The impact can be profound, affecting health, independence and quality of life.

Professor Adam Croft, from School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, the Arthritis UK Chair of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC CoRE in Restorative Immunology said: “While remarkable advances have been made in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases over the past two decades, the focus has largely been on controlling inflammation to relieve symptoms and prevent damage to tissues.

“New technologies now allow us to study diseased tissues at unprecedented resolution, revealing how healthy tissue becomes diseased and identifying the cells and molecular pathways that drive this process. Combined with the development of therapies capable of precisely targeting these cells and pathways, this creates a realistic opportunity to move beyond lifelong disease control towards treatments delivered with curative intent – with the ultimate goal of restoring long-term health and wellbeing.”

Alongside Professor Adam Croft, who is an active researcher at both the University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford, Birmingham researchers will join this programme, contributing strengths integral to the success of the MRC CoRE including: human tissue modelling; experimental medicine; and early clinical studies.

The University of Birmingham has also attracted major global partners to join the ambitious programme. Professor Ye Oo is Chair of autoimmune liver diseases and translational hepatology and will lead liver theme of MRC CoRE. Prof Oo’s recent Wellcome Discovery Award with Nobel Laureate, Professor Shimon Sakaguchi from Osaka University will underpin early phase translational trials.

Alongside leading experts for specific conditions covered by the MRC CoRE, the University of Birmingham will look at vital cross-cutting workstreams such as inclusive research design and data equity and generalisability.

The CoRE will build on best practice approaches developed in Birmingham, including Artificial Intelligence-focused project STANDING Together and REP-EQUITY, which helps reduce health inequity in research. The underpinning support will ensure the data underpinning the programme represents patient experiences of health burdens, while pioneering statistical approaches.

Dr Ameeta Retzer, an Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Evidence and Implementation Science said: “The MRC CoRE for Restorative Immunology represents a transformative opportunity for people with immune mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID). The inclusion of key programmes such as REP-EQUITY will ensure it doesn’t leave anyone behind.”

The team will bring together experts from eight universities, charities, public engagement organisations, industry and biotechnology, combining different skills and perspectives to improve the lives of patients and train the next generation of researchers.

Dr Ceri Williams, Executive Director of Challenge Led Portfolio at MRC, said: “MRC Centres of Research Excellence are designed to tackle some of the most important challenges in biomedical research through sustained, ambitious and collaborative science. By doing so, they contribute to UKRI’s mission to advance knowledge, improve lives and drive growth across the UK.

“By bringing together expertise from across disciplines, sectors and countries to tackle these fundamental questions, this centre has the potential to transform our understanding of inflammatory disease and accelerate the development of treatments that deliver lasting benefits for patients.”

Birmingham expert chairs Independent Commission on safe AI adoption in healthcare

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners.

A Birmingham clinical academic has co-chaired a new report setting out how the NHS can adopt AI innovations while maintaining public trust and patient safety.

Professor Alastair Denniston of BHP founder-member the University of Birmingham has chaired the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare which has published its recommendations on how the UK can strengthen the regulation of AI in healthcare – ensuring it remains safe, keeps pace with innovation, and continues to earn people’s trust.

AI is already used in the NHS to spot serious health problems early, for example strokes and skin cancers, and to free up clinicians’ time through voice-enabled technologies. The Commission’s recommendations aim to help more patients benefit safely and quickly, by supporting the UK to become the best place for innovators to build and safely test AI, the best place for healthcare professionals to use it and – most importantly – the best place for patients to engage with it in their care.

Professor Denniston, who Chairs the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare, said: “We innovate because we believe tomorrow’s healthcare can be better than today’s. But any new innovation – including AI – needs to earn its place and earn our trust. These technologies need to show that they are safe, effective and bring benefits to patients, staff and the wider NHS, without leaving people behind.

“Over the past year we have heard from more than 12,000 people, including patients, carers, clinicians and the technologists building AI tools. One message came through clearly: people are open to AI improving their care, but only if it is safe, overseen by humans, and if they know when it is being used. These recommendations are designed to make that trust possible, so that the UK can lead the world not just in developing AI for healthcare, but in showing how it can be regulated and used responsibly.”

Among the key recommendations in the report, the Commission proposes a pathway for faster access to safe and effective AI.

The Commission recommends that the MHRA introduce staged authorisations for new AI models, similar to ‘L-plates’ for learner drivers. New models would be deployed under close supervision and tight guardrails, allowing them to demonstrate real-world safety and performance before being granted fuller authorisation. This staged approach is designed to give UK patients world-first access to promising new models, while ensuring risk is carefully controlled at every step.

Other recommendations include:

  • Continuous, real-world monitoring throughout a device’s lifecycle. Rather than a single, point-in-time approval, the Commission recommends that AI-enabled medical devices should be subject to continuous, real-world monitoring throughout their working life;
  • Public access to safety information. The Commission also recommends that members of the public should be able to easily search for information about the safety of specific AI-enabled medical devices, including any adverse incidents; and
  • Tougher powers to protect patients. The Commission recommends stronger powers for the MHRA, including enhanced enforcement powers, to ensure that where AI systems fall short of the standards patients expect, the regulator can act decisively.

Professor Henrietta Hughes, NHS General Practitioner, Deputy Chair of the National Commission and Patient Safety Commissioner for England, said: “Patients have told us that to trust AI is safe, they want to know when it’s used, that it supports rather than replaces clinicians, and that there is clear accountability if things go wrong. That’s exactly what our recommendations deliver.

“Putting people before technology to improve care and give clinicians more time to meet patients’ needs. That’s how we can keep people safe and build the health system’s confidence to embrace AI’s full potential.”

Lawrence Tallon, the MHRA’s Chief Executive said: “I welcome this authoritative and independent report which sets out in more detail than ever before how we should best regulate AI in healthcare.

“We have heard clearly about the opportunities of AI to speed up and improve care, and to release more of clinicians’ time for the essentially human aspects of their work with patients.

“We will only realise those opportunities if we have a modern, dynamic regulatory framework that accelerates safe adoption, protects patients and commands public and professional confidence. I am so grateful to the many people who contributed to this expert Commission to set out the roadmap ahead.”

The independent Commission was established by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in September 2025 and includes diverse expertise across health, regulation and AI, including international contributors from around the world including the USA and Singapore.

The Commission gathered evidence from more than 12,000 people over the course of a year, including patients, the public, clinicians, healthcare leaders, industry and technology developers, making it the largest engagement of its kind ever undertaken in the UK on the regulation of healthcare technology. Additional in-depth deliberative research by research partner the Health Foundation with members of the UK public, published today, provided detailed insight into the UK public’s priorities and expectations for the regulation of AI in healthcare.

Taken together, that engagement found broad public support for AI in healthcare, with clear conditions: strong safety standards, meaningful human oversight, and transparency about when and how AI is being used in someone’s care. The Commission’s recommendations respond directly to these views.