The Medical Research Council (MRC) is a UK organisation dedicated to "improving human health through world-class medical research". It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains an environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and has provided the financial support and scientific expertise behind a number of medical breakthroughs, such as the development of penicillin, the structure of DNA and the link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century.
Organisation
The MRC is one of seven Research Councils and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) since 6 June 2009 - previously Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) . In the past, the MRC has been answerable to the Office of Science and Innovation, part of the Department of Trade and Industry).
It is governed by a council of 14 members, which convenes every two months. Its Council, which directs and oversees corporate policy and science strategy, ensures that the MRC is effectively managed, and makes policy and spending decisions. Council members are drawn from industry, academia, government and the NHS. Members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Daily management is in the hands of the Chief Executive. Members of the council also chair specialist boards on specific areas of research. For specific subjects, the council convenes committees.
History
The MRC started as the Medical Research Committee in 1913, its prime role being the distribution of medical research funds under the terms of the 1911 National Insurance Act. This was a consequence of the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, which recommended the creation of a permanent medical research body. The mandate was not limited to tuberculosis, however.
In 1920, it became the Medical Research Council under Royal Charter. A supplementary Charter was formally approved by the Queen on 17 July 2003.
Landmark research
Important early work carried out under MRC auspices was:
- Identification of the dietary cause of rickets by Sir Edward Mellanby
- Discovery, in 1918, that influenza is caused by a virus
- Description of neurotransmission and the first neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, by Sir Henry Hallett Dale and Otto Loewi, leading to a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1936;
- Development of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming, Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Lord Florey, gaining them the 1945 Nobel Prize;
- Linkage of lung cancer to tobacco smoking by Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford Hill in the British doctors study, published in 1956;
- Discovery of the structure of DNA by James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Professor Maurice Wilkins. They would receive the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for their discovery.
- Development of magnetic resonance imaging in 1973 by Professor Peter Mansfield and independently by Paul Lauterbur. This would lead to the 2003 Nobel Prize.
- Development of monoclonal antibodies by César Milstein and Georges Köhler in 1975 (1984 Nobel Prize)
- The identification, in 1983, of folic acid as a preventive measure for spina bifida and neural tube defects
- Large studies, in the 1970s and 1980s, showing that aspirin can decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease.
- The publication of the genome of C. elegans, the first multicellular organism to receive this treatment, in 1998.
- The ongoing Heart Protection Study, showing benefits of primary prevention with simvastatin in patients at high risk for cardiovascular disease.
- Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2009 awarded to Dr Venki Ramakrishnan of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology for showing how ribosomes, the tiny protein-making factories inside cells, function at the atomic level.
- Discovery that early treatment of HIV-infected babies with anti-retroviral therapy can dramatically increase their chances of survival.
- Development of a test for detecting infectious prions on surgical instruments which is more accurate than previous tests and 100 times faster.
- Identification of the second ever genetic variant associated with obesity.
- The finding that high quality surgery combined with a short course of radiotherapy can halve the rate of recurrence of colorectal cancer.
In all, scientists associated with the MRC have received 29 Nobel Prizes in both Medicine or Physiology and Chemistry.
CEOs
As Chief Executive Officers (originally secretaries) served:
Institutes, Centres and Units
The MRC has 28 units and three institutes in the UK, and two units in The Gambia and Uganda. It also has 22 centres offering partnerships with UK universities to develop centres of scientific excellence. Three 'lifelong health' research centres were announced in 2008, funded by the MRC, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, as part of the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing programme.
Birmingham
- MRC/University of Birmingham Centre for Immune Regulation
Brighton
- MRC/University of Sussex Centre in Genome Damage and Stability
Bristol
- MRC/University of Bristol Centre for Synaptic Plasticity
- MRC Centre for Causal Analyses in Translational Epidemiology
Cardiff
- MRC Centre Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics
Cambridge
- MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit
- MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB)
- MRC Collaborative Centre for Human Nutrition Research (formerly known as Dunn Human Nutrition Unit)
- MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
- MRC Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
- MRC Centre for Protein Engineering
- MRC Centre for Obesity and Related Metabolic Diseases
- MRC Centre for Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute (BCNI)
- MRC Cancer Cell Unit
- MRC Epidemiology Unit
- MRC Biostatistics Unit
Dundee
- MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit
Edinburgh
- MRC/University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research
- MRC Human Genetics Unit
- MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit
- MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine
- MRC Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology
Entebbe
- MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS
Fajarra
Glasgow
- MRC Institute of Hearing Research(Glasgow University)
- MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow
- MRC Virology Unit
Harwell
- MRC Mammalian Genetics Unit
Leicester
Liverpool
- MRC Centre for Drug Safety Science
London
- The Crucible Centre
- MRC/University College London Centre for Medical Molecular Virology
- MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, home of the National Survey of Health & Development
- MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry (SGDP) Centre
- MRC Prion Unit
- MRC National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) including the MRC Biomedical NMR Centre
- MRC International Nutrition Group
- MRC General Practice Research Framework (GPRF)
- MRC Clinical Trials Unit (CTU)
- MRC Clincial Sciences Centre (CSC)
- MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health
- MRC Centre for Transplantation
- MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling
- MRC Centre for Neuromuscular Diseases
- MRC Centre for Neurodegeneration Research
- MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology at King's College London
- MRC Cell Biology Unit
- MRC Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma
Newcastle
- Centre for Brain Ageing and Vitality
Nottingham
- MRC Institute of Hearing Research (Nottingham)
Oxford
- Radiation Oncology and Biology Initiative
- MRC/Cancer Research UK/BHF Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU)
- MRC Human Immunology Unit
- MRC Functional Genomics Unit
- MRC Centre for Genomics and Global Health
- MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit
- MRC Molecular Haematology Unit
Sheffield
- MRC Centre for Developmental and Biomedical Genetics
Southampton
- MRC Institute of Hearing Research (Southampton)
- MRC Epidemiology Resource Centre
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