A major consortium from across the Cambridge life sciences, technology and business worlds has announced a multi-million-pound, three-year collaboration with the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), the UK Government’s new research funding agency.
The team is aiming to accelerate progress on new neuro-technologies, including miniaturised brain implants designed to treat depression, dementia, chronic pain, epilepsy and injuries to the nervous system.
Its members are: Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge; Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge; The Milner Therapeutics Institute; The Maxwell Centre; Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP); Cambridge Network; The Babraham Research Campus; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; Vellos; Cambridge Neuroscience.
The collaboration is seeking innovators from any background with a highly ambitious concept for a technology that could transform brain health. The very best will be offered the resources to test and then scale up their idea at pace, so it can be brought to patients across the world quickly and affordably. The vision is to unlock more treatments with fewer side effects, creating a world where personalised brain health care is available to everyone.
Neurological and mental health disorders will affect four in every five people in their lifetimes, and present a greater overall health burden than cancer and cardiovascular disease combined. For example, 28 million people in the UK are living with chronic pain and one point three million people with traumatic brain injury.
Neurotechnology – where technology is used to interact with the nervous system – has the potential to deliver revolutionary new treatments for these disorders, in much the same way that heart pacemakers, cochlear implants and spinal implants have transformed medicine in recent decades. These technologies also have the potential to treat autoimmune disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and type-1 diabetes.
George Malliaras, FRS, Prince Philip Professor of Technology, University of Cambridge, said: “Miniaturised devices have the potential to change the lives of millions of people currently suffering from neurological conditions and diseases where drugs have no effect. But we are working at the very edge of what is possible in medicine, and it is hard to find the support and funding to try radical, new things. That is why the partnership with ARIA is so exhilarating, because it will empower us to give brilliant people the tools to turn their original ideas into scalable, commercially viable devices that can have a global impact.”
Kristin-Anne Rutter, Executive Director of Cambridge University Health Partners, said: “This is an incredibly exciting and unique partnership that is all about turning radical ideas into practical, low-cost solutions that change lives. Cambridge is fielding its best team to make this work and using its networks to bring in the best people from all over the UK. From brilliant scientists to world-leading institutes, hospitals and business experts, everyone in this collaboration is committed to the ARIA partnership because, by working together, we all see an unprecedented opportunity to make a real difference in the world.”
Dr Ben Underwood, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Physical and mental illnesses and diseases that affect the brain such as dementia are some of the biggest challenges we face both as individuals and as a society. This funding will bring together different experts doing radical things at the very limits of science and developing new technology to improve healthcare. We hope this new partnership with the NHS will lead to better care and treatment for people experiencing health conditions.”
