Our new hospital will house the state-of-the-art CCRI (Cambridge Children's Research Institute), solely dedicated to improving the health of children and young people. Led by Professor Sam Behjati, it will be regional and national hub for child health research.
Welcome from Sam Behjati, Director of the Cambridge Children's Research Institute
A Whole New Way is the motto of the Cambridge Children’s Hospital project, and the same applies to the Cambridge Children’s Research Institute (CCRI). The CCRI is a bold collaborative project across Cambridge University Departments to address the major challenges facing children in the 21st century. Our research will tackle what matters to children, from conception into adulthood, covering mental and physical health, with a shift from reaction to prevention. At the same time, the CCRI will connect the extraordinary basic science capabilities of Cambridge to child health. A key aspect of the CCRI is that it is physically embedded in the hospital. This will foster close collaboration between clinical services and researchers and, just as importantly, remind researchers every day of why we do what we are doing.
A Whole New Way is what attracted me to the Directorship of the CCRI. It is a privilege to be able to build something new, to reinvent how child health research is done, free from the shackles of traditional silos of disciplines and departments. My scientific background lies in genomics and cancer research, and I am a practicing paediatric oncologist. Beyond these labels, I have always considered myself, first and foremost, a paediatrician. My mission is to translate the best science into better outcomes for children.
Although based in Cambridge, we very much see the CCRI as a regional and national hub for child health research. We hope that what we are doing in Cambridge - our Whole New Way - will serve as a model of child health research of the future.
Although based in Cambridge, we very much see the CCRI as a regional and national hub for child health research. We hope that what we are doing in Cambridge - our Whole New Way - will serve as a model of child health research of the future.
About Cambridge Children's Research Institute
The Cambridge Children’s Research Institute will embed research into Cambridge Children’s Hospital, bringing researchers and clinicians together in one place to create a collaborative and multi-disciplinary environment dedicated to improving the health of children and young people.
The Institute will work to understand the early origins of physical and mental health conditions, using this knowledge to intervene sooner, shifting from reactive care to prevention and early intervention, to mitigate or prevent onset of serious disease.
Bringing together specialists in different disciplines and disease areas the Institute will house six research centres, focussed on understanding the main causes of children’s illness and the most serious obstacles that they face in their health and wellbeing.
Despite enormous challenges, we stand far closer than ever before to better treating many chronic and acute childhood diseases and conditions, to understanding the fundamental interconnection between mental and physical health and to predicting, or even pre-empting, them altogether. New discoveries about the origin of disease and behaviours, powerful technologies like whole genome sequencing, novel diagnostics and therapies, and the ability to access insights from patient data are poised to transform children’s physical and mental health.
Cambridge’s unique track-record, particularly in key fields like genetics, neuroscience, metabolic health and cancer, and its ability to translate research discoveries into direct and scalable patient benefits, means that the Research Institute within the Children’s Hospital is ideally placed to lead this transformation.
The 5,000m2 of new research space provided by the Institute will house wet and dry laboratories, clinical research facilities, a big data science core, and space for 200 faculty, staff and students. This will dramatically expand the physical footprint of Cambridge’s research space wholly focused on children and young people.
The Institute will catalyse interdisciplinary thinking from across the University of Cambridge and wider paediatric landscape, bringing together patients, clinicians, and researchers with world-class biomedical research organisations and industry partners. It will deploy expertise in genomics, data science, and artificial intelligence to deepen our understanding of genetic, chronic, and degenerative conditions.
Through the integration of biomedical, psychological and social sciences across infancy, childhood and young adulthood the Institute will develop new expertise for children and young people’s physical and mental health. By co-locating the Institute within the Hospital, we will accelerate the translational benefits of research, bridging the gaps in the research to clinical care continuum and ensuring clinicians are aware of new possibilities from the very beginning. Co-location will also ensure that research is directed towards the most clinically pressing questions – allowing care teams to plan how best to incorporate advances in diagnosis and treatment in close partnership with researchers, reducing the time it takes for patients to benefit from new discoveries and approaches.
Find out more about paediatric research in Cambridge (opens in a new tab).