Support for establishing the Therapy Acceleration Laboratory in Oxford to assess clinical trial samples (back translation)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
The Therapy Acceleration Laboratory would:
a) Set world-leading standards in quality and impact to study samples, using specialist genetic, immunological, phenotypic and pathological assays, from clinical trials to accelerate therapy development, including supporting registrational trials in partnership with academics, the NHS and industry.
b) Enable discovery and application that open new areas of biology with mechanistic studies developed using state-of-the-art technologies and methods.
c) Utilise strengths and capability across the UK, and the international biomedical landscape, to attract the most innovative clinical trials with the potential to rapidly transform human health.
Of note, there are already three academically sponsored Phase III registrational trials in advanced negotiation due to start between October and December 2021 that would be supported by the TAL.
The beneficiaries: would be patients, the three partner MRC Units, the NHS, other academic units throughout the UK, the NHS and industry.
a) Set world-leading standards in quality and impact to study samples, using specialist genetic, immunological, phenotypic and pathological assays, from clinical trials to accelerate therapy development, including supporting registrational trials in partnership with academics, the NHS and industry.
b) Enable discovery and application that open new areas of biology with mechanistic studies developed using state-of-the-art technologies and methods.
c) Utilise strengths and capability across the UK, and the international biomedical landscape, to attract the most innovative clinical trials with the potential to rapidly transform human health.
Of note, there are already three academically sponsored Phase III registrational trials in advanced negotiation due to start between October and December 2021 that would be supported by the TAL.
The beneficiaries: would be patients, the three partner MRC Units, the NHS, other academic units throughout the UK, the NHS and industry.
Technical Summary
The MRC Population Health Research Unit (PHRU) would like to actively help establish the Therapy Acceleration Laboratory (TAL), at the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), in a joint collaborative initiative with the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit (MHU) and Human Immunology Unit (HIU). The TAL will be an ISO-17025 accredited and GCLP and HTA compliant laboratory supporting first -in-human proof-of-concept trials to registrational trials that provide evidence for new drug labelling applications to international regulatory authorities. This objective fits the remit of the funding call to promote broad collaborative activity, networking and open science approaches (sharing of best practice and software tools) to build a new national asset. TAL will be open to supporting clinical trials from all academic institutions in the UK.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Description | VOG team support to RECOVERY Trial |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | VOG team provides ongoing expertise in doing systematic reviews to RECOVERY team, enabling publishing of RECOVERY research findings re acute treatments for Covid-19 in context. |
| Description | IF-Oxford 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 15-16 October 2022 IF-Oxford (Ideas Festival), Science @ the Shops, Templars Square Shopping Centre, Oxford. Organising institution: IF Oxford which is produced by charity Oxfordshire Science Festival (Attended by VOG team members: Heather Halls and Lisa Holland). • Programme introduction: "Help me stay well. Your arteries are amazing. They carry blood loaded with oxygen around your body, but when they become narrowed or blocked, things can go seriously wrong. Find out how to keep your arteries clear and your blood flowing, to protect your heart and brain, with interactive games (Saturday and Sunday). Oxford Population Health, University of Oxford." • The aim of this activity was to provide a lay audience with information about statins, to enable them to understand the risks and benefits of these drugs, learn how to be critical about what they read, determine what is a strong study, and trust and understand the results about statin adverse effects. It was produced in conjunction with the publication of the CTT muscle paper. It was aimed largely at adults, who are more likely to be prescribed statins than children, and older children who will be learning about statins as part of the GCSE Combined Science and GCSE Biology curricula. • 4 activities: o a) 'Don't lose your balls': a team-based game where teams are given 3 possible answers to a question and then have to 'hedge their bets', dividing 10 tennis balls between buckets representing the answers they think are correct. Balls placed in the 'incorrect' buckets are lost, and the winner is the team with the most balls left at the end. o b) 'Make me healthy': the aim was to remove all the 'bad' cholesterol from a life-sized cardboard human body illustrated with major arteries and organs, by correctly answering age-appropriate questions about healthy living. o c) An interactive poster with flaps illustrating the progression from early-phase trials through to meta-analyses, to illustrate the power of large-scale trials and meta-analyses. This also revealed a message as the flaps were being opened, saying 'Statins Are Safe and Work', which could only be read when all the flaps had been opened. o d) Statin muscle video which was scrolling through on a table for less outgoing people to engage in. • An information leaflet was also produced for the public to take away and read at their leisure, and Sophia Wilkinson apparently wrote up an evaluation report for this activity which engaged ~165 people. Data Game activity: Lisa Holland and Heather Halls met with Hannah Freeman to pass on the Data game activity which she is now responsible for developing for teacher use. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |