Research and innovation

Our Institute provides a patient-centred research programme with two integrated clinical trial research units, so patients from across the region have access to many of the latest treatments and developments.

Research teams across the Institute have demonstrated continued success in being the first to recruit to multiple competitive global trials, and leading recruitment to many national and international clinical trials. We also work closely with commercial partners to host national and international clinical trials as well as funded Investigator Initiated Trials.

Our research facilities include:

• Haematology Research Unit at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
• Oncology and Haematology Clinical Trials Unit at the Cancer Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
• NIHR-Wellcome Trust King’s Clinical Research Facility (CRF).
• CRF at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, which is the only Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) phase I accredited NHS-managed CRF in London.

The Cell Therapy Unit at King’s College London also manufactures a variety of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products in state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice facilities for novel therapies of difference cancers and rare diseases. More widely, the facility plays a vital role in turning novel ideas into life-saving treatments and supporting partners through Phase 1 clinical trials (when investigational products are tested in humans for the first time).

Research database projects

The South East London Plasma Cell Disorders Registry (SEL PCD Registry) is a research database collecting information on patients with a range of plasma cell disorders.

Achievements

We have secured funding through competitive open-call research bids from pharmaceutical, biotech, government and charity funding bodies to enable pre-clinical research and its translation, including first-in-human (phase 1) trials and later phase clinical trials.

Our research has been published in peer reviewed journals including New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Nature, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Blood and many others, demonstrating the extensive and innovative research taking place at our Institute. We are making significant contributions to the ever-evolving body of knowledge, and helping advance care and treatment options for our patients. 

Examples of success include:

• Our NHS Foundation Trusts have been awarded funding and are accredited IMPACT and TAP Centres; these are accelerated research platforms for the development and delivery of pioneering clinical trials in stem cell transplant (IMPACT) and blood cancers (TAP).
• We play an internationally leading role in the development of molecular monitoring techniques for acute myeloid leukaemia. This has led to the establishment of an international reference laboratory for patients treated in and outside clinical trials, opening the door to truly personalised therapy. 
• Our myeloproliferative neoplasms service is an international centre of excellence and work here has led to the discovery of driver mutations and delivery of targeted therapies, which are now approved. We continue to provide global leadership of cutting edge commercial and academic trials. We have led the world literature for management of pregnancy and young patients with these conditions.
• The Cell and Gene Therapy at King’s College London produces the largest number of lentivirus and retrovirus (gene carriers) based vectors for regulatory approved clinical trials in Europe.
• King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust’s Haematology department is one of 11 accredited CAR-T centres in the UK offering commercial CAR-T products (a type of immunotherapy which involves collecting and using the patients' own immune cells to treat their condition) for cancer treatment, as well as several CAR-T trials for a range of haematological malignancies.

Read our latest news and learn more about upcoming events.

To get in touch with the Institute and learn more about our work, please email KHPHaematology@kcl.ac.uk.