Research centre

NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre

Baby reaches up towards smiling research nurse

The NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre takes new discoveries, treatments and technologies into the clinic, using unique tools, facilities and world-changing expertise.

About

The NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is a longstanding partnership between the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHSFT), funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

Our vision

The NIHR Southampton BRC aims to improve people’s health and resilience throughout life by developing better treatments and care. 

The centre comprises over 600 researchers from across the partnership. They are enhancing health and quality-of-life through five strategic research themes:  

Researchers work closely with patients and the public to ensure a person-centred, collaborative and inclusive research culture. 

Our impact 

Southampton has been at the forefront of nutrition and respiratory research since 2008.  Major breakthroughs in deliberate allergen exposure and lifelong prevention of fractures have improved treatments and guidance for patients in the south and across the UK. 

The BRC also played a key role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Southampton researchers enhanced prevention, diagnostics and treatments at incredible pace and scale, including fast tracking COVID-19 drugs into large scale trials. 

The BRC is closely tied with the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility (CRF), an extensive, dedicated space for early-stage clinical research in the heart of University Hospital Southampton. 

Visit the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre website

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Aneurin Young MBBS BSc PhD

NIHR Clinical Lecturer

Research interests

  • Neonatology
  • Clinical nutrition
  • Metabolomics
Connect with Aneurin

Dr Chengchen Zhang PhD

Lecturer

Research interests

  • Material-Bio Interactions Inspired Therapeutics
  • Material-Bio Interactions Enabled Biosensors
  • Biomimicry in Theranostics

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Chengchen

Professor Claire Foster

Professor of Psychosocial Oncology

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Claire

Professor Gareth Griffiths

Director Clinical Trials Unit

Research interests

  • Gareth Griffiths is Professor of Clinical Trials and directs our Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.  He works with clinicians, research groups and other scientists in the development of important clinical trials and other well-designed studies that aim to improve the treatment of a range of cancers and other diseases, and early diagnosis of cancer.
  • His works spans the different phases of clinical trials, from small dose finding and safety studies involving a handful of patients to larger trials of hundreds of patients looking at whether the treatments are better than the current standard treatments.  His early diagnosis studies include thousands of patients looking at new ways to detect cancer early.  Ultimately, these studies could help change the way that patients are treated for the better, by creating the evidence so as the new treatments becomes the standard of care for future patients treated in the NHS.
  • Phase I-III clinical trials
Connect with Gareth

Mr Hings Luo

Research interests

  • Infrared (IR) Spectroscopy / Raman Spectroscopy
  • Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS)
  • Particles in Exhaled Air (PExA)
Connect with Hings

Professor Jaswinder Sethi BSc DPhil FRSB

Professor of Immunometabolism

Research interests

  • Immunometabolism
  • Obesity
  • Metabolic diseases

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Jaswinder

Professor John Holloway PhD, FHEA

Associate V-P Interdisciplinary Research

Research interests

  • Human genetics
  • Epigenetics
  • Respiratory Disease

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with John

Professor Julia Sinclair MB BS DPhil FRCPsych FHEA

Professor of Addiction Psychiatry

Research interests

  • alcohol use disorders
  • health services research
  • co-morbidity
Connect with Julia

Miss Olatundun Gafari

Lecturer in Public Health
Connect with Olatundun

Dr Rujie Sun

Lecturer

Research interests

  • Medical Robotics (Micro/Nano Robotics, Soft Robotics)
  • Flexible Electronics
  • Sensors and Biosensors

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Rujie