Today, 1 October 2026, marks the formal start of the Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Restorative Immunology.
Led by the University of Birmingham, the Centre brings together researchers and expertise from universities across the UK and internationally, alongside NHS, industry, charity and patient partners.
The Centre has an ambitious goal: to move beyond controlling inflammation towards understanding how immune balance and tissue health can be restored, ultimately creating new opportunities for sustained remission without long-term immune suppression.
From discovery to patient benefit
Research across the Centre will be organised through three interconnected Research Streams spanning Data Exploration, Mechanisms of Tissue Restoration and Experimental Medicine.
Researchers will study inflammatory disease directly within affected tissues, including the synovium, salivary gland, gut and liver. By bringing together data and expertise across different diseases and tissues, the Centre will investigate why inflammation persists in some circumstances but resolves in others, and identify mechanisms that could be targeted therapeutically.
The programme is designed to connect discovery science with experimental medicine, helping promising findings move towards approaches that can ultimately be tested in patients.
Building the Centre
The first year will also focus on establishing the wider community and infrastructure needed to support the programme.
Researchers across participating institutions will work together through Research Streams and cross-cutting groups covering areas including training and development, research culture, data governance, clinical studies, patient and public involvement, and commercial engagement and knowledge exchange.
The Centre will also begin developing its doctoral training programme, opportunities for researchers to become involved in the Centre, and new collaborations across institutions, disciplines and sectors.
Looking ahead
The coming months will see the Centre community come together as the scientific programme develops and new opportunities for collaboration, training and involvement are established.
Our first Centre-wide meeting in November will bring researchers and partners together to share the vision, introduce the Research Streams and working groups, and consider how we can build an effective and inclusive Centre community.