UCL’s new Director of Medicine talks about the research and business opportunities at the proposed UKCMRI, and his wider aspirations for translational medicine.
Andrea Chipman
Patrick Maxwell becomes the Director of University College London’s Division of Medicine on March 1, moving from Imperial College.
As a proponent of translational research, a direction endorsed by current government policy, Maxwell expects to advise on the recently announced UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation at St Pancras.
UKCMRI: the priorities for research and collaboration
The proposed research centre would house teams from the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, and UCL, and Maxwell says he expects immunology and cancer research to be high priorities for the new centre. He will also forge connections with other medical centres in the region.
“UCL is going to have a special relationship with the UKCMRI project because of its substantial financial investment and its geographic proximity, which will give us special opportunities to share resources,” he says. “But my view is that broad collaborations driven by science should be established not only with key universities in South East England but throughout the UK. I want them all on board and to feel that this is the right thing to happen for the UK and the right thing to happen for London.”
He notes that UCL has developed a global medical excellence cluster with the biomedical research centres of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and King’s College, London, and that these five universities have been named comprehensive biomedical research centres by the National Institute for Health Research.
“Hopefully, we can use those existing arrangements to maximize the collaborative basis of the St Pancras set-up,” he adds.
Straddling business and academia
Maxwell made his name with ground-breaking research into the proteins that contribute to kidney disease, and is co-founder of ReOx, an Oxford spin-out attempting to turn his research results into treatments.
He plans to remain involved in ReOx, and will use the experience to play a guiding role in building collaborations.
“We are fortunate in the UK to have some of the major players in the pharmaceutical industry on our front doorstep,” says Maxwell. “My own experience of a spin-out is that it was an important enabling step to develop the right interface with industry. UCL has a wonderful academic ethos. I would certainly see a really good ambassadorial role in helping development of spin-outs and building relationships with industry.”
Maxwell will also continue as Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences, which advises on national policy concerning biomedical science.
Getting the hospitals humming
He will also exploit the full potential of UCL and its partner hospitals. Bringing together the strong medical school and teaching hospital traditions from the Royal Free, the Middlesex and UCH, a process that started in earnest about a decade ago, will deliver rich rewards for the institution, he adds.
“These places each had distinctive histories and were quite proud institutions, and they’ve gone a long way down the integration road, but I think it would be right to say that they still aren’t maximizing their potential,” he says. “My guess would be that over the next five years we can get that running really smoothly, the place will be humming and we will be able to capitalize on the incredible breadth and depth of basic science within UCL.
“Making that relationship between the hospitals and the University deliver its full potential is quite a big challenge.”