Centres & Programmes

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Our 18 NIHR BioResource Centres throughout England provide local interaction and support and recruit new volunteers.

Our Programmes are major initiatives between Centres and partners to tackle specific health conditions.

NIHR BioResource sites for 2023

BioResource Centres

Our network of 18 Centres spans England, recruiting participants for the national BioResource. Some Centres also specialise in areas of local expertise.

Our Centres are staffed by teams who are highly skilled in participant recruitment, sample collection and study management.

Each BioResource Centre is connected to the corresponding local Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), which is another National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) supported infrastructure.

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BioResource Programmes

Coordinated by our Centres, our BioResource Programmes build on our strengths to make a difference in a specific disease area.

All our Programmes welcome participants from across England with some able to recruit volunteers from the rest of the UK.

IBD BioResource: a national platform designed to expedite research into Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

IMID BioResource: helping research into Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases and the factors that determine severity.

Mental Health BioResource: research that aims to improve our understanding of different mental illnesses and identify new and better treatments.

NAFLD BioResource: a partnership that aims to identify new disease mechanisms and potential targets for treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Rare Diseases BioResource:  we identify genetic causes of rare diseases, to improve diagnosis and to support work to develop and validate treatments. Our work will improve care for those with rare diseases and support their families.

D-CYPHR: dedicated specifically to research which will help children and young people.

COVID-19 BioResource: working with committed and passionate researchers and participants, we are involved in coronavirus cutting edge research.

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Our cohorts

Our cohorts cover three main areas: common diseases, rare diseases, and healthy population.  Due to the specialist work needed to support COVID research we have a special section for that too.

Cohorts

How we help

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250,000

participants have joined us to help uncover the causes of disease 

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400+

research publications since 2009 supported by the BioResource and our participants

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1,230,000

samples that help researchers in their work to tackle disease