GOSH wins funding for technology to support research to improve children’s health outcomes

11 Oct 2024, 2 p.m.

Micro CT image of a heart

Image: Micro CT scan of a heart taken by the GOSH imaging service

We're delighted to announce that we've been successful in obtaining funding of £1.46m from the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s (NIHR) Capital Investment Bid.

The bid provides funding to NHS organisations across England for technology to support children’s health research. It is the first in a series of annual capital investment calls, each providing funding of up to £30m.

Bolstering new developments with cutting-edge equipment

The award will fund equipment to improve imaging and diagnosis, develop gene therapies, advance surgical techniques, and extend AI capabilities, helping us to get new tests and treatments to patients quickly.

The funding will support rare genetic mutation research and the development of gene editing technologies with a new droplet system and our imaging service will purchase a scanner that uses the latest technology.

Researchers will also be able to acquire tools to perform computer vision AI research into medical imaging and photography to support clinical decisions and diagnosis. This holds immense potential to develop first-of-its-kind paediatric AI algorithms to improve patient care.

Dr Laura Turner, Deputy Director of Operations at the NIHR GOSH Biomedical Research Centre said:

"We are thrilled to receive this capital from NIHR which will allow us to acquire some of the best technology to support GOSH’s important research.

"Children comprise around 25% of the UK population, yet are significantly underserved in UK health research, with only 5% of the national research budget dedicated to paediatric research.

"This funding will allow us to remain at the cutting edge of research methodology and facilitate faster translation into a clinical setting for our patients.

"This is a really exciting opportunity for us to continue supporting research at the hospital and collaborations with our NHS hospital partners across the UK”.

Breakdown of awards and lead applicants

  • Nikon XT-225 Micro CT machine, £685,297 - Prof Owen Arthurs
  • QX600 Droplet digital PCR system, £159,890 - Dr Nathan White
  • Incucyte SX5 HD/3CLR YSY live imaging system, £195,349 - Prof John Anderson
  • GPU Server: HPE DL380 Gen 11 with NVIDIA H100 80Gb PCIe Accelerator, £124,985 - Dr Susan Shelmerdine
  • iBright™ FL1500 Imaging System, £33,961 - Prof Julie Dumonceaux
  • Veriti™ 96-Well Fast Thermal Cycler, £19,528 - Prof Julie Dumonceaux
  • Accessories for neurophysiology amplifier system (Ripple Summit), £125,000 - Mr Martin Tisdall
  • IMACTIS CT-Navigation system, £112,500 - Dr Premal Patel

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