The National Institute For Medical
Research, commonly abbreviated to NIMR,
is a large medical research facility situated in Mill Hill
, on the outskirts of London
, England
. It
is mainly funded by the
Medical Research Council, or
MRC, and is its largest establishment and the only one designated
as an 'Institute'. The MRC has published plans to move the
institute to a new site in central London, in 2012.
Research
The National Institute For Medical Research specialises in four
main research areas;
There are 18 divisions, over 200 scientists and at least 200 other
trained personnel, including postgraduate students. The NIMR's
annual research budget is £25 million.
History
Foundation
The Medical Research Council, founded in 1913, was immediately
charged with establishing a central research institute in London.
Later that
year, premises at Hampstead
were acquired and the National Institute for
Medical Research was founded.
However, the outbreak of
World War I
soon after postponed occupation of the building, although senior
staff were appointed and began work.
By 1920 the Institute
at Mount Vernon
Hospital
was fully operational and remained so for 30 years
until the move to its current location at Mill Hill. The
original Institute, under the directorship of Sir
Henry Dale, had three divisions:
Dale oversaw a period of considerable success at NIMR, including
the discovery of the human
influenza
virus in 1933 and the discovery of the neurotransmitter
acetylcholine, for which Dale himself
received the 1936
Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine.
Moving to Mill Hill
In the 1930s the decision was made to move the Institute to new
premises.
An imposing copper-roofed building at Mill
Hill was designed by Maxwell Ayrton,
also the architect of the original Wembley Stadium
, and construction began in 1937. Once again,
occupation was delayed when
war broke
out in 1939 and the building was given to the
Women's Royal Naval Service. The
building was returned to the MRC in autumn 1949 but Sir Henry Dale
had retired in 1942 and so was never director on the new site, that
job falling to his successor Sir
Charles Harington.
The official
opening ceremony took
place on the
5 May,
1950,
with their Majesties
King George VI and
Queen Elizabeth present.
Harington expanded the research programme into ten divisions during
his 20 year tenure and guided researchers at the Institute to,
amongst other achievements, the development of
gas chromatography and the discovery of
interferon. From 1950-55
Albert Neuberger was Head of Biochemistry
at the Institute.
In 1962, Nobel Prize winner Sir
Peter
Medawar became director and, consistent with his research
interests, established NIMR as a major centre for
immunological research. Following an illness,
Medawar retired as director in 1971 to be replaced by Sir
Arnold Burgen. Burgan had an interest in
nuclear magnetic
resonance techniques and formed the MRC Biomedical NMR Centre
at the Institute in 1980. Sir Dai Rees became director in 1982 to
be replaced by Sir
John Skehel in 1987.
Since then NIMR has continued to excel scientifically reporting,
perhaps most famously, the discovery of the
sex
determining gene
SRY, in 1991.
Towards the future
In 2003, as part of their Forward Investment Strategy, the MRC
announced plans to consider moving NIMR from its current location
to a university/medical school site, to enhance its ability "to
translate its biomedical research into practical health
outcomes."
[164511][164512] University College London
was selected as a preferred partner institution,
and a nearby site in central London was acquired.[164513]Some staff at the NIMR, including
Robin Lovell-Badge and John Skehel,
expressed opposition to a move.
In response to accusations of "coercion" during the review process, a House of
Commons
select committee
investigation criticised both the MRC for losing the confidence of
NIMR workers, and unnamed NIMR staff for "undermining [Colin] Blakemore's position as MRC chief
executive." [164514][164515]
In September 2006, Sir John Skehel retired as NIMR director
[164516] and Sir
Keith Peters became acting director
[164517] until the future structure of the new
institute could be finalised.
In July of that year the MRC announced that
Scott Fraser of the
California Institute of
Technology
had been invited to take over the
directorship. [164518] According to Blakemore, negotiations
were ongoing as of December 2006
[164519].
However, finally, in October 2008, Jim Smith
of the Gurdon Institute, University of
Cambridge
(who worked at the NIMR from 1984 to 2000),
accepted the Directorship, with effect from January
2009.
Though the
financial package from HM Treasury
is not yet formalised, the construction of the new
NIMR facility is scheduled to begin in 2009 and the relocation from
Mill Hill is scheduled for 2012. [164520]
Mill Hill Essays
A yearly collection of essays are produced by guest authors and
staff at the Institute, under the title
Mill Hill Essays. They are written to be
accessible and informative to the lay reader.
Animal testing
Some scientists at NIMR perform
research
on animals. Because of this, and the perception that the
Institute is the MRC's
flagship facility,
there are weekly protests by members of
animal rights groups outside the complex.
These protests usually take place on a Wednesday evening, and
normally have a low attendance (5 people or less).
Trivia
NIMR in Batman Begins.
See also
External links
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