Projects

Academic Collaborative Research

Under the umbrella of the LMU-Cambridge Strategic Partnership, the OTR is coordinating the STAR TRACK project together with the CPC-M bioArchive in Munich. Focusing on cardiopulmonary disease, there are 4 main topics:
-    Development of a strategic online tool to track translational success
-    Translational cardiopulmonary research (lung vascular pathology focusing on developmental pathway regulation across ages)
-    Data mining (multi-omic signature of deep clinical phenotyping in lung explant tissue: Environmental induction of chronic lung disease (CLD))
-    Telemonitoring in CLD: Wireless Monitoring in Neonatal CLD

Link to strategic partnership information.

MRC

Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS)

A two part project consisting of two randomised controlled clinical trials (LILACS: Phase I/II, randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled, adaptive trial, and IVORY: Phase II, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled experimental trial) to test the hypothesis that regulatory Tcells (Tregs) enhanced through supplementation with ld-IL2 will suppress cardiovascular (CV) inflammation, with the aim to ultimately promote tissue repair and limit adverse CV events.  The OTR provide project management support to the research team through risk management, regular reporting and liaison with the funder. 

LILACS: link to recruitment information
LILACS: link to published protocol
IVORY: link to recruitment information
IVORY: link to published protocol

A randomised controlled phase II clinical trial to test the hypothesis that immunotherapy is an effective treatment of acute psychosis associated with anti-neuronal membrane antibodies. The OTR liaise closely with the funders, local administrative teams and collaborators in the University of Oxford to ensure smooth project progression. 

Link to UKRI summary
Link to trial pages
Link to recruitment information

A two part project consisting of a lab based element to identify specific biomarkers that regulate BMPR2 in PAH, followed by an adaptive, Bayesian-stratified response-adaptive clinical trial, which is aimed at providing a personalised approach to treatment of the disease. The OTR provide project management support to the research team through risk management, regular reporting and liaison with the funder. 

Link to UKRI summary

MRC

Experimental Medicine (EM)

 The primary aim of this project is to compare the mechanistic effects of two anti-CD20 B-cell depleting agents (Obinutuzumab versus Rituximab) in terms of their ability to 1) deplete tissue B-cells, and 2) attenuate the aberrant T-cell response associated with ANCA-associated vasculitis. This project will take the form of a randomised double-blind controlled trial alongside an extensive biomarker programme. 

Link to summary of trial information.

MRC/Innovate UK

Expression of Interest: Full Body PET Funding Opportunity

The OTR is providing project management support for a bid to host one of two national state-of-the-art centres for the new technology of Total Body PET at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus as part of a national platform for industrial, academic and clinical researchers in the UK. 

Link to expression of interest information.

EPSRC

Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC)

The last 4 decades saw many failed systemic drug repurposing trials and their inability to bypass the Blood-Brain-Barrier to reach brain tumour sites. A biodegradable hydrogel has been developed which offers superior apposition to brain tissue loaded with gemcitabine, for immediate application to the post-resection tumour cavity walls to achieve local cytotoxic effects. The conformal adherence of the hydrogel has a huge potential as a surgical adjunct releasing gemcitabine directly to the margin of the resection targeting remaining GB cells (recurrence happens in 80% of patients). The local rather than systemic delivery profile of hydrogel and the well-known safety profile of gemcitabine, predicts a low toxicity associated with the use of hydrogel. 

Link to project summary.

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

Health Technology Assessment (HTA)

OPACE is a clinical trial investigating the use of Azithromycin for COPD patients. Long-term azithromycin treatment may have benefits but also risks; such as antibiotic resistance and it may be less effective in some patients compared to others. It is therefore important to have evidence to guide the best ways to use azithromycin as a prophylactic agent for patients with COPD. The trial will compare the continuous use of Azithromycin by COPD patients with either seasonal or more permanent cessation use of the antibiotic. The Office for Translational Research helped with the development of the application for funding and are project managing the trial.

Link to clinicaltrials.gov entry.

NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health and Care Award

OSAIRIS uses Microsoft Project InnerEye’s open-source AI toolkit to differentiate tumour and healthy tissue on cancer scans (called ‘segmenting’), prior to radiotherapy treatment with the aim of evaluating how this could save clinicians’ time, reduce the time between the scan and commencing treatment, and scale this out to other NHS Trusts. The OTR provide project management support to the research team through finance management, regular reporting and liaison with the funder.

BHP award announcement.
CUH award announcement.
 

Industry Collaborative Research

LifeArc/Addenbrookes Charitable Trust/Kidney Research UK/UNION Therapeutics/GlaxoSmithKline

PROTECT-V is a platform trial to test prophylactic interventions against SARS-CoV2 infection in vulnerable patient populations at particularly high risk of COVID-19 and its complications, seeking to identify treatments that either might prevent the disease from occurring or may reduce the number of cases where the disease becomes serious or life-threatening. Multiple agents can be evaluated on the same platform across multiple vulnerable populations, with the option of adding additional treatments at later time points as these become available.  The OTR provide project management support to the research team through finance management, regular reporting and liaison with the funder.

Link to study summary.