20 September 2011
Professor Lord Robert Winston officially opens Bristol’s new Clinical Research and Imaging Centre
Professor Lord Robert Winston officially opened Bristol's new
Clinical Research and Imaging Centre (CRIC Bristol) on St Michael's
Hill yesterday.
Professor Lord Winston met with researchers from University
Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the University of
Bristol to discuss their areas of research before having a tour of
the Centre and marking the occasion by unveiling a commemorative
plaque.
Professor Lord Winston said: "It is really important to see this
collaboration between the NHS and the University. Clinical
research is a vital area of medicine and this new state-of-the-art
centre will open up very exciting areas of research. I am
delighted to officially open CRICBristol."
Dr Chiara Bucciarelli-Ducci Co-Director of CRICBristol and
consultant cardiologist at the Bristol Heart Institute, said: "It
is an honour to have Professor Lord Winston opening our centre.
With his knowledge and enthusiasm for science and research he has
managed to engage the general public's interest, which is an
inspirational example for us."
This £6.6 million state-of-the-art clinical research and imaging
centre is a unique collaboration between the University of Bristol
and its main NHS partner, University Hospitals Bristol NHS
Foundation Trust, and will allow people in Bristol and the South
West to benefit from the latest, high-quality, cutting-edge
research being conducted locally.
The Centre facilities include a 3Tesla MRI scanner, Siemens
Magnetom Skyra (funded by the Wolfson Foundation), two-room sleep
laboratory and four clinical investigation suites together with
high-performance computational facilities, laboratory, meeting
rooms and offices.
The MRI scanner can be used in a wide range of biomedical
research, for example to monitor blood flow in the brain and
identify changes in brain activity in people with mood disorders
(anxiety and depression), addiction (alcohol and drugs), stroke and
dementia. It will also be used for cardiovascular investigations,
notably the use of stem cells in heart repair and new cardiac
surgery procedures to monitor blood flow in the heart in children
and adults.
The sleep laboratories will house studies into the links between
sleep disorders and obesity in children, hypoventilation (the
condition associated with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or
cot death), and research into sleep in psychiatric disorders and
the effects of drugs on brain neurotransmission in adults.
Research will be carried out with healthy volunteers as well as
clinical populations and the centre will support local, national
and international research.
Current research teams using CRICBristol include studies of
neonatal MR imaging, brain injury, functional brain imaging, breast
and prostate MRI studies, cardiac imaging, cardiac function and
reserve during and after cardiac surgery, sleep disorders in
children, adults and clinical populations.
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