Global competitiveness in fast moving areas of biomedical research such as advanced therapies requires collaboration across the key academic players in London. This partnership way of working was enhanced through a £5m Research England award in 2018 for the establishment of ‘London Advanced Therapies’; it has now been carried forward in establishing the ‘London Advanced Therapies ATTC’. This is an exciting development which, long term, should deliver health and wealth benefits to the UK.
Professor Simon Howell, Director of Academic Estates Strategy for Health Campuses, Guy’s Campus Dean and King’s lead for the London ATTC
14 October 2024
King's part of new London-based Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre
King’s College London, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have been awarded funding to form the London Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (ATTC), alongside partners across the city. The new centre will be focused on accelerating the delivery of cell and gene therapy clinical trials.
The new centre – the London Advanced Therapies ATTC – is made up of four partner organisations: Imperial College London, King’s College London, Queen Mary University of London and University College London (UCL), and their associated NHS Trusts.
The London ATTC will work to improve the infrastructure for advanced therapy clinical trials. The centre aims to increase the number and speed of recruitment to trials, and help more patients take part in them to access potentially life-changing cell and gene therapies.
The ATTC network is coordinated by the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and Innovate UK.
Advanced therapies require complex processes such as modifying genes, using cells or engineering tissues. The London ATTC will build upon the reputation of its partner organisations as a global hub for advanced therapies research and commercial clinical trials.
As part of the London ATTC, research staff will be added to established and specialised teams across King’s College Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’, including Evelina London Children’s Hospital, to help increase enrolment of patients onto advanced therapy clinical trials.
Evelina London is at the forefront of delivering gene therapies to children with life-altering conditions. One example is Zolgensma, a gene therapy that has been licensed for the treatment of type 1 Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) in babies.
SMA is a rare genetic condition that affects the nerve cells that link the spinal cord to the muscles. It can cause muscle weakness, movement difficulties with sitting up, crawling and walking, and problems with breathing and swallowing. It’s caused by an altered gene (called SMN1) being passed on to a baby from their parents.
Zolgensma works by replacing the faulty SMN1 gene with a new copy, which can improve symptoms and quality of life for babies with the condition. Evelina London is one of only six centres across the UK that can treat babies and young children with SMA type 1 with Zolgensma.
At our partner hospitals there are teams dedicated to developing and trialling new cell therapies for people with cancer. This type of immunotherapy uses a patient’s own immune cells to treat their cancer. T cells, a type of white blood cell important in the immune response, can be isolated from the patient’s tumour or blood, and may be modified in the laboratory to recognise cancer cells. These T cells are then injected back into the patient’s bloodstream, where they detect and kill the cancer cells. This type of therapy has been shown to be very effective against some types of blood cancer and is currently intensively studied in patients with solid tumours.
James Spicer, Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine and Consultant in Medical Oncology, leads the King's Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre and runs the cancer phase 1 trials programme for King's Health Partners, where the teams are exploring new cell and other advanced therapies for people with cancer.
The London ATTC represents an important step up in the provision that we can bring to bear on studying new therapies in cancer and other diseases. A lot of these clinical studies are too big and complex to run at just one site. By collaborating across the partner sites, we’ll be able to share best practice and expertise to deliver more treatments to patients safely and effectively.
Professor James Spicer, Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at King's and Consultant in Medical Oncology at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
The new centre joins the three existing ATTCs: Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub; Midlands-Wales ATTC; and the Northern Alliance ATTC.
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Director of Academic Estates Strategy for Health Campuses
Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine