The Medical Research Council (MRC) is one of nine councils of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. The MRC is responsible for funding medical research in the United Kingdom and supports world-leading discovery and translational research to accelerate diagnosis, advance treatment and prevent human disease.
Research supported by the MRC has contributed to major scientific advances including the development of penicillin and the discovery of the structure of DNA. Scientists supported by the MRC have received numerous Nobel Prize.
Contents
History
The MRC was founded as the Medical Research Committee and Advisory Council in 1913, with its prime role being the distribution of medical research funds under the terms of the National Insurance Act 1911. This was a consequence of the recommendation of the Royal Commissions on Tuberculosis, which recommended the creation of a permanent medical research body. The mandate was not limited to tuberculosis, however.
In 1920, it became the Medical Research Council under Royal Charter. A supplementary Charter was formally approved by the Queen on 17 July 2003. In March 1933, MRC established the British Journal of Clinical Research and Educational Advanced Medicine, the first scientific published medical patrol, as a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. It contains articles that have been peer reviewed, in an attempt to ensure that articles meet the journal's standards of quality, and scientific validity, allow researchers to keep up to date with the developments of their field and direct their own research.
In August 2012, the creation of the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre, a research centre for personalised medicine, was announced. The MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre is based at Imperial College London and is a combination of inherited equipment from the anti-doping facilities used to test samples during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and additional items from the Centre's technology partners Bruker and Waters Corporation. The Centre, led by Imperial College London and King's College London, is funded with two five-year grants of £5 million from the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and was officially opened in June 2013.
Notable research
Important work carried out under MRC auspices has included:
the identification of the dietary cause of rickets by Sir Edward Mellanby. Mellanby also carried out human experimentation regarding vitamin A and C deficiencies on volunteers at the Sorby Research Institute;
the discovery, in 1918, that influenza is caused by a virus;
the description of neurotransmission and the first neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, by Sir Henry Hallett Dale and Otto Loewi, leading to a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1936;
the development of penicillin by Sir Alexander Fleming, Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Lord Florey, gaining them the 1945 Nobel Prize;
linkage of lung cancer to tobacco smoking by Sir Richard Doll and Sir Austin Bradford Hill in the British doctors study, published in 1956;
the discovery of the structure of DNA by James D. Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Professor Maurice Wilkins. Three would receive the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for their discovery;
the development of magnetic resonance imaging in 1973 by Professor Peter Mansfield and independently by Paul Lauterbur. This would lead to the 2003 Nobel Prize;
the development of monoclonal antibodies at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology by César Milstein and Georges Köhler in 1975 (1984 Nobel Prize);
the development of DNA sequencing by Frederick Sanger of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1977 (1980 Nobel Prize);
the identification, in 1983, of folic acid as a preventive measure for spina bifida and neural tube defects;
Organisation and leadership
MRC is a council of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. In the past, the MRC has been answerable to the Office of Science and Innovation, part of the Department of Trade and Industry and the later to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
On 1 April 2028, the MRC became part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Day to day leadership of MRC activities is provided by the Executive Chair. The MRC Council advises and supports the Executive Chair on scientific, research and innovation matters and provides independent scrutiny and challenge.
Chairmen
1913–1916: Lord Moulton
1916–1920: Major Waldorf Astor
1920–1924: George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen
1924: E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
1924–1929: Earl of Balfour
1929–1934: Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon
1934–1936: Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow
1936–1948: George John Gordon Bruce, 7th Lord Balfour of Burleigh
1948–1951: Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison
1952–1960: Edmund Pery, 5th Earl of Limerick
1960–1961: Viscount Amory
1961–1965: Lord Shawcross
1965–1969: Viscount Amory
1969–1978: Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland
1978–1982: Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd
1982–1990: George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe
1990–1998: Sir David Plastow
1998–2006: Sir Anthony Cleaver
2006–2012: Sir John Chisholm
2012–2018: Sir Donald Brydon
Chief executives
As Chief Executives (originally secretaries) served:
1914–33: Sir Walter Morley Fletcher
1933–49: Sir Edward Mellanby
1949–68: Sir Harold Himsworth
1968–77: Sir John Gray
1977–87: Sir James L. Gowans
1987–96: Sir Dai Rees
1996–2003: Professor Sir George Radda
2003–2007: Professor Sir Colin Blakemore
2007–2010: Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz
2010–2018: Professor Sir John Savill
Executive chairs
Following the formation of UK Research and Innovation, the executive chair role replaced the chief executive officer role, and has been held by:
2018–2022: Professor Fiona Watt
2022-2023 (interim post): Professor Sir John Iredale
2023–present: Professor Patrick Chinnery
Institutes, units and MRC Centres of Research Excellence (MRC CoREs)
The MRC provides funding to research institutes, units and MRC CoREs across the UK. The MRC also supports research through its units in The Gambia and Uganda.
In 2022, the MRC announced changes to transition the way it funds long-term research through units and centres by introducing a challenge-led, time limited model known as MRC Centres of Research Excellence (MRC CoREs). The new model is intended to support ambitious and interdisciplinary research programmes with the potential to transform biomedical and health research within a 14-year timeframe. The following is a list of the MRC's institutes, centres and units as of June 2024.
Bristol
MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol (IEU)
Cambridge
MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge (BSU)
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge (EU)
MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB)
MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, University of Cambridge (MDU)
MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit at the University of Cambridge
MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge
Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge
Dundee
MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit at the University of Dundee
Facilities and resources
MRC facilities and resources include, as of June 2024:
In the UK:
Better Methods, Better Research guidance portal
Central Laser facility at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory
Clinical trials data sharing: ReShare (at the UK Data Service)
Cohort Directory
Diamond Light Source (UK national synchrotron facility, Harwell)
Dementias Platform UK
Electron Bio-imaging Centre at the Diamond Light Source
Genomics England
Health Data Research Innovation Gateway
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory
LifeArc
Mary Lyon Centre (UK national facility for mouse genetics, Harwell)
MRC Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Centre
MRC Centre for Macaques
MRC scales (MRC dyspnoea scale; MRC muscle scale; neurological scle)
MRC-Wellcome Trust Human Developmental Biology Resource (HDBR)
Regulatory Support Centre