Other Laboratory Based Clinical Subjects: Unit of Assessment 5
The majority of research in the Other Laboratory Based Clinical Subjects UoA is officially classified as world-leading or internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour, having most of its evidence assessed as being in the 4* and 3* categories for quality in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
| Quality Level | 4* | 3* | 2* | 1* | Unclassified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % of research activity | 15 | 55 | 30 | 0 | 0 |
All staff entered into UoA 5 are from the Institute of Human Genetics (IHG) which was established in 2001. The IHG is the hub of a vital University and NHS research community at the Centre for Life complex in central Newcastle. The Centre is progressive, highly collaborative, deeply engaged in ethical and societal implications of biomedical research and committed to promoting educational outreach.
The Centre for Life concept (an integrated science centre that linked basic and applied research in human genetics to public education, educational outreach, ethics and commerce) was realised by a successful £60m bid to the Millennium Fund. A £4.4 million Wellcome Trust JIF award provided further infrastructural support.
A £3.5 million DH/DTI award together with £6.5 million matching funds from the development agency One North East (ONE) funded creation of Life Knowledge Park. This multidisciplinary programme to develop genetics in health care supported an embryonic stem cell initiative and a genome instability initiative. Early successes in embryonic stem cell research attracted a further £9.8 million ONE award to support development of stem cell research in the North East, notably at the Centre for Life and at Durham University. As a result of the above and various other infrastructural investments the IHG has state-of-the-art facilities for carrying out molecular, cell and developmental biology studies.
The IHG submitted 14 category A staff in RAE 2001. For RAE 2008 we now submit 31 category A staff who are full members of the IHG. Of these, 19 staff with research interests in clinical and developmental genetics are being returned to UoA 5, the majority of whom have been recruited since 2001. The remaining 12 IHG staff are entered into UoA 4 (mostly staff with interests in complex disease genetics) or UoA 9 (those with an interest in mitochondrial genetics). The increase in academic staff number has been achieved by creating new academic posts to support strategically important areas, attracting a considerable influx of staff from continental Europe and the USA.
The current major IHG research groupings are:
Clinical and Complex Disease Genetics
- Neuromuscular genetics (UoA 5/UoA 9)
- Renal and complement genetics (UoA 4)
- Complex disease genetics & genome instability (UoA 4/UoA 5)
Developmental Genetics and Stem Cell Research
- Vertebrate developmental genetics and developmental malformation (UoA 5)
- Mammalian stem cell genetics & pre-implantation embryology (UoA 5)
The 19 IHG staff submitted to UoA 5 have won seven programme grants and more than £30m in research grants since 2001, including a total of £4.9m from MRC, £4.3m from the Wellcome trust, £4m from DoH, £3.5m from EU funding, £1.8m from BBSRC, and £1.4m from NIH.
Currently 45 postgraduate research students are supervised by the 19 UoA 5 staff. The Centre for Life offers postgraduate research students a stimulating environment at both the research and public engagement levels, and we have taken care to ensure that their successful development is optimised by having an active mentoring system and a good research seminar/journal club environment. In addition, they are encouraged to participate in regular seminars run by the PEALS Institute (Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences) and to a variety of other educational and public engagement activities at the Centre for Life.