Hammersmith Hospital

What is the Centre of Excellence in Vasculitis Research?

The Centre of Excellence in Vasculitis Research was awarded in January 2020 having evolved over three years.

The College initiative to encourage focused multi-disciplinary research Centres, along with the location of the White City Campus close to the clinical hub of vasculitis activity, provided the catalyst for the development of the Research Centre.

The new Centre will consolidate and strengthen cross-faculty research collaborations within Imperial College to answer important scientific questions. The critical mass of multi-faculty researchers in the Vasculitis Research Centre has formed an active umbrella research group with an interest in understanding all aspects of disease pathogenesis and outcomes. It will also align closely with the Imperial NHS Trust (ICHNT) multidisciplinary Vasculitis and Rare Inflammatory Diseases clinical service. This specialist service, located across the Imperial Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and supported by NHS England Specialist Commissioning policies, is one of the largest in Europe, with unique cohorts comprising more than 600 patients. Hence, the new Centre represents a unique opportunity within London to bring together scientists from all disciplines with access to the data and biobanks of the largest UK cohort of these rare diseases.

Although vasculitis research within the College is internationally recognised, until 2017, vasculitis research was largely confined to the Faculty of Medicine and Imperial AHSC. Since then we have worked to harness multidisciplinary skills in biological sciences, bioengineering, chemistry, imaging and clinical science, to create UK’s largest vasculitis research group.