The Old Road Campus Research Building

The Old Road Campus Research Building (ORCRB), opened 2008, is a new purpose built, state of the art research facility located in Headington, Oxford.

ORCRB brings together renowned specialists in cancer, providing unrivalled expertise, resources and collaborative opportunity. The ORCRB is at the heart of the University of Oxford’s world leading research into cancer. The University’s partnership with local hospitals means that science and medical care are integrated more closely than anywhere else. This is “translational” research at its very best – research that translates basic science discoveries into new and better ways of diagnosing, treating and preventing cancer.

 

The Old Road Campus is home to the Churchill Hospital including its new £100m cancer hospital, the Richard Doll Building (housing epidemiological studies and clinical trials services) and the Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genomics. It also has close links and convenient access to Oxford’s science area, the Weatherall Institute for Molecular Medicine and the John Radcliffe Hospital.

 

Old Road Campus Research Building Departments

 

The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Ltd

Director – Professor Xin Lu

 

The Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) is the largest international non-profit institute dedicated to understanding and controlling cancer, with nine Branches in seven countries across Australasia, Europe, and North and South America, and numerous affiliates in many other countries. LICR engages leading scientists and clinicians in an integrated effort to understand and confront the global challenge of cancer. It brings together recognized leaders in many areas of science and oncology, and is one of twenty international organizations recognized as producing research articles of extremely high impact.

 

Under Professor Lu’s leadership LICR Oxford is primarily involved in developing novel and successful strategies to suppress tumour growth and metastasis. Research within the branch currently utilises melanoma and lung tumours, such as small cell lung cancer, as model systems to identify new molecular targets, biomarkers and therapeutic strategies. In particular, the branch focuses on molecular pathways that affect cancer susceptibility, cellular senescence, apoptosis and the differentiation of stem cells to a defined cell lineage.

 

www.ludwig.ox.ac.uk

www.licr.org

 

Structural Genetics Consortium

Director – Professor Chas Bountra

 

The Structural genomics consortium is a not for profit organisation that aims to determine the three dimentional structures of proteins that are of medical relevance and place them in the public domain. SGC’s work in Oxford is primarily in the following areas: Metabolic Enzymes, Phosphorylation Dependent Signalling, Integral Membrane Proteins, Biotechnology and Genome Integrity, Chemical Biology, Protein Crystallography & Research Informatics.

 

www.sgc.ox.ac.uk

 

The Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology

Director – Professor Gillies McKenna

 

ROB is particularly interested in working on ways to improve the ‘therapeutic ratio’ in radiation treatment. This ratio is the response of the tumour under radiation, to the damage to the normal tissues caused by radiation. It is decisive for how helpful radiation can be in treating tumours. ROB will focus on areas of research, which have been identified by Professor McKenna as particularly ripe for clinical exploitation. These areas are: DNA damage signalling, differences in tumour versus normal tissue signal transduction, tumour microenvironment and its effects, imaging, radiation physics, studies of signal transduction pathways in tumours, Studies of the protease inhibitor nelfinavir with radiation and Development of radiopharmecuticals for systemic use that target the cytotocicity of radiation directly to tumour cells.

 

www.rob.ox.ac.uk

 

Oxford University Department of Clinical Pharmacology

Director – Professor Len Seymour

 

The Department of Clinical Pharmacology is part of the Medical Sciences Division, an academic division of the University of Oxford. The Department has active research groups focused on gene therapy, clinical trials, pharmacogenomics and studying adverse drug reactions and ion transport mechanisms, and has a unit running clinical trials. It also provides advice on therapeutics to clinical staff within the Oxford hospitals, to the Health Authority, and to GPs in the Oxford region; this is done through direct contact and activities on the local Drug and Therapeutics Committee.

 

www.clinpharm.ox.ac.uk

 

The Jenner Institute

Director – Professor Adrian Hill

 

The Jenner Institute was founded in November 2005 to develop innovative vaccines against major global diseases. Uniquely it focuses both on diseases of humans and livestock and tests new vaccine approaches in parallel in different species. A major theme is translational research involving the rapid early-stage development and assessment of new vaccines in clinical trials.

 

www.jenner.ac.uk

 

Oxford Institute of Biomedical Engineering

Director – Professor Lionel Tarassenko

 

Oxford biomedical engineers are actively involved in the translation of research-based techniques into the commercial and clinical arena, where they can ultimately benefit patients. The department is improving ways of identifying tumours and determining whether or not they are cancerous through novel imaging techniques, and developing other new imaging techniques to target chemotherapy more effectively. Other biomedical engineers are involved in improving the efficacy of HIFU (high-intensity focused ultrasound) for ‘zapping’ cancer cells.

 

www.ibme.ox.ac.uk

 

 

Our Neighbours

 

 

1. Old Road Campus Research Building

2. Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genomics [ www.well.ox.ac.uk ]

3. Sir Richard Doll Building [ www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk ]