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IDRM ground-breaking – work gets underway!

General

Work will shortly be underway on the new IMS-Tetsuya Nakamura Building, home to the new Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine at Old Road Campus. The formal ground-breaking ceremony, which took place towards the end of last year, was organised by the Medical Sciences Development team in collaboration with the Department of Paediatrics.

IDRM ground-breaking – work gets underway! © Rob Judges
Image (from left to right) 1. Professor Georg Holländer 2. Dr Tetsuya Nakamura (Itabashi Medical System Group CEO) 3. British Heart Foundation’s CEO, Mr Simon Gillespie 4. The Chancellor, the Right Honourable Lord Patten of Barnes 5. Professor Paul Riley

This £35m centre, which is set to open in the summer of 2021, will bring together 220 leading researchers from Oxford and across the globe. Their collaboration will enable them to understand the cellular and molecular control of normal human development and to harness this knowledge for the design of novel therapies that correct birth defects and repair adult organs.

Two thirds of all deaths worldwide are due to non-communicable diseases; many of these are cardiovascular, neurological or immune system disorders. Scientists in the new IDRM building will study the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning normal development and what goes wrong in those with birth defects.

Regenerative medicine has the potential to offer treatments for diseases and disorders by providing the body with the means to repair, replace, restore and regenerate damaged or diseased cells, tissues and organs. Advances will be translated into patient treatment and care through drug discovery and bioengineering to deliver treatments for public benefit.

Under the leadership of Professor Georg Holländer (Hoffmann and Action Medical Research Professor of Paediatrics), Professor Paul Riley (British Heart Foundation Professor of Regenerative Medicine), and Professor Matthew Wood (Professor of Neuroscience), the IDRM will integrate programmes in cardiovascular, neurological and immunological science that are dedicated to deciphering the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning the developmental biology essential for human health.

This vision has been made possible through a partnership between the University of Oxford, the British Heart Foundation and the philanthropist Dr Tetsuya Nakamura (Itabashi Medical System Group CEO) and his foundation.

Dr Nakamura and his wife, Mrs Naoko Nakamura, the British Heart Foundation’s CEO, Simon Gillespie, and other generous donors to this project were invited to attend the official ground-breaking ceremony. We were honoured to be joined by the Chancellor, the Right Honourable Lord Patten of Barnes, who presided over the ceremony.

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