The University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham jointly host significant infrastructure for experimental medicine and early phase trials including the millennial Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility, the Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and NIHR Biomedical Research Unit for Hepatology. The BCCT hosts the Early Drug Development team with expertise in industry-sponsored and academic-led trials, adult and paediatric oncology, solid cancers and haematology, liver medicine, molecularly targeted therapy, cellular immunotherapy and gene therapy. It has dedicated, integrated and expanding facilities for clinical assessment and treatment, whole body metabolic measurement, pharmacy, imaging and GCLP-compliant laboratories.
The University of Birmingham has established a Human Tissue Authority (HTA) licensed human tissue bank, the Human Biomaterials Resource Centre (HBRC) dedicated to the collection and storage of appropriately consented, quality-assured biomaterials for distribution to biomedical research groups both in academia and industry. A purpose-built fully equipped facility, funded through the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands Science City Translational Medicine Programme, will be functional by the end of 2010. The HBRC can undertake the collection and storage of research samples within clinical trials for future research or bespoke tissue collections for specific translational sub-studies already planned. All material collected by the HBRC is consented, collected and stored according to HTA Codes of Practice, and the HBRC has NRES ethical approval so that investigators who wish to access material do not need to apply for separate project-specific approval.