University of Edinburgh
5 Little France Dr.
Edinburgh EH16 4UU, United Kingdom
+44 131 651 9500
www.crm.ed.ac.uk
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) is a world leading research center based at the University of Edinburgh. The center was formed as a cross-college initiative between the University’s School of Biological Sciences and the College for Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, for the purpose of studying stem cells, disease and tissue repair to advance human health. The center grew from what was the first Institute of Stem Cell Research in the UK, and continues the University’s strong history in stem cell research, dating back to the first stem cell publications in the early 1990s by researchers at the Centre for Genome Research. With its new state-of-the-art facilities and team of scientists and clinicians, CRM feels it is positioned uniquely to translate scientific knowledge to industry and the clinic.
Established: 2008
Director: Professor Charles ffrench-Constan
Under the direction of lead researcher Prof. Clare Blackburn, the center recently succeeded in growing a fully functional thymus gland in a mouse by inserting reprogrammed fibroblasts from a mouse embryo. This is believed to be the first time scientists has grown a complex, functional organ from scratch in a living animal by transplanting cells that were originally created in a laboratory.