Advancing research into maternal health
Today, maternal mortality remains unacceptably high. Worldwide, pregnancy and childbirth are the number one killer of young women aged 15-19 years, with 50,000 deaths per year in this group alone.
Birmingham now leads Europe’s largest miscarriage research centre – the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research – in partnership with two other universities and four NHS hospitals. In 2019, we were awarded a WHO Collaborating Centre for Global Women’s Health, with the shared vision of minimising mother and baby deaths from preventable causes globally.
Improving our resilience to COVID-19
From virology to immunology, our researchers continue to work on addressing the effects of COVID-19. From establishing the first of three UK flagship testing facilities; processing thousands of COVID-19 tests daily, to every sequenced COVID-19 genome in the UK being processed and analysed by a system developed at Birmingham. We are now leading major studies to understand better how the immune system interacts with SARS-CoV-2 to help develop better diagnostics, treatments and vaccines, and investigate the effects on patients of ‘long COVID’.
Building a transformative health ecosystem
Birmingham, and the wider West Midlands, offers researchers the opportunity to work as core partners in our local healthcare system, which treats and cares for a highly diverse population of over five million people.
We are a founding member of Birmingham Health Partners, a strategic alliance of NHS, academic and industry organisations, representing a critical cluster of health excellence, rapidly applying scientific and clinical insights into patient benefit. Our Birmingham Health Innovation Campus (opening in 2023) will further catalyse productive interactions between clinicians, academics, industry and patients to accelerate the field of personalised, precision medicine.
Our NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre builds on our established world-class strengths in inflammation biology and experimental medicine to accelerate access to new therapies and diagnostic tests for patients with chronic immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
With unrivalled co-located, integrated health and life sciences expertise, we work with industry partners to help develop innovations at pace and scale. Our collaborative approach puts the needs and priorities of communities and healthcare providers at the heart of our agenda.
Our researchers focus on translating cutting edge medical science into new treatments, drugs and medical devices as quickly as possible, using clinical trials and patient studies to improve the lives of patients around the globe.