Overview
Research and development
- Current page section : Overview
- Our research achievements
- Take part in research
- Data and research
- Research partnerships
Research is vital to improving the care that we all receive when we're unwell. Guy's and St Thomas' has a world leading reputation for research. Our researchers work to improve patient care and develop new and better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases.
You can help improve healthcare by taking part in research studies at our Trust. When you're with us, ask your healthcare professional about research. They'll be happy to tell you about research studies you could be eligible to join.
Our research is important because patients and the public help to shape our work by advising our researchers. They also make our research possible by taking part in research studies.
How our research improves health and care
Guy's and St Thomas' research teams have world-leading knowledge and skills and lead research across many disease areas.
Royal Brompton specialises in heart and lung research.
Evelina London leads research focused on children and young people.
Our recent successes
- Developing a procedure called Transabdominal Cerclage (TAC) to prevent preterm birth
- Developing a new test that could help diagnose thousands of people who have 'microvascular angina'
- Ovarian tissue preservation service for women undergoing cancer treatment
- Developing a new type of treatment recommended for severe COVID-19
- World's first cell therapy trial for post COVID-19 fibrotic lung disease
- Being amongst the first in the world to identify and treat paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (PIMS-TS), triggered by COVID-19
- Performing the first robotic assisted endoscopic coronary artery bypass surgery in the NHS
Our research expertise
In 2020/21, 26,851 people took part in 1,896 research studies open at the Trust looking at new:
- ways to diagnose and prevent illness
- treatments and medicines
- medical devices
World class research facilities
We're a leading centre for clinical research and trials. Our cutting edge experimental medicine infrastructure, world renowned experts and world class collaborations allow us to deliver research with local, regional, national and global impact.
Specific facilities include:
- the NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas' Biomedical Research Centre with King's College London. The Centre works to turn lab research into treatments for patients
- the NIHR Guy's and St Thomas' Clinical Research Facility (CRF), with adult, children's and imaging units. Our Guy's unit is an MHRA Phase I accredited unit. This means it meets the high standards required for conducting first in human studies. We're the only such accredited NHS unit in London, and one of only two in England
- Our Cancer Centre at Guy's includes the Innovation Hub, a state-of-the-art research facility
- The London Institute for Healthcare Engineering is part of the St Thomas' MedTech Hub. We're also home to the London Medical Imaging & AI Centre for Value Based Healthcare
- Our Advanced Therapies Accelerator opened in 2021. This places us at the heart of work to develop new liver gene and cell therapies for conditions such as cancer, diabetes, genetic disorders and neuro-degenerative diseases
- With King's College London we host 5 of the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) centres focusing on:
- transplant
- asthma
- developmental neurobiology
- environment and health
- social, genetic and development psychiatry
We:
- are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre
- are a founding member of the KHP Clinical Trials Office
- host the NIHR Clinical Research Network South London