04 Jul 07

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall yesterday laid the foundation stone for an extension to the Botnar Research Centre, the home of Oxford University research into musculoskeletal science.

The laying of the stone formed part of a broader visit in which Her Royal Highness opened the new £42m hospital buildings of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust. The Botnar Research Centre, situated next to hospital, allows researchers to work closely with patients to maximise the practical application of their work.

The Botnar Research Centre, housing the Oxford University Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences, opened in 2002. The Institute brings together scientists and clinicians who are investigating a wide range of diseases of the musculoskeletal system, including common complex diseases such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, chondrocalcinosis and osteoporosis. Less common diseases are also studied, including vasculitis, the skeletal dysplasias and fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.

The £8m phase 2 extension will house clinicians, scientists and support staff working on important areas of research in the epidemiology of musculoskeletal diseases. The focus of phase 2 will be clinical trials with patients, testing new treatments with the aim of bringing them into widespread use.

The Botnar Research Centre's research sits within the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Oxford University's academic department of orthopaedic surgery. The department is a rapidly growing community of orthopaedic surgeons, other clinicians, and scientists, all working in the field of musculoskeletal disorders.

Major interests of the Botnar Centre's researchers include genetics of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis and inflammatory arthritis, osteoclast and osteoblast biology, and biomedical engineering.

Her Royal Highness, who unveiled the foundation stone and then joined staff and patrons for tea, is Patron of the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre (NOC) and of the NOC Appeal, an independent fundraising charity that supports the hospital and the Botnar Research Centre (which is leased to the University from the Hospitals Trust).

She was welcomed to the Botnar by Professor Graham Russell, the current Norman Collisson Professor of Musculoskeletal Science and Director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences; Professor Cyrus Cooper, Chair-Elect to the Norman Collisson Chair of Musculoskeletal Science; and Professor Andrew Carr, Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Lord Tebbit, President of the NOC Appeal, said: 'We are proud of what we have achieved together on this site and grateful to Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall for her interest and for formally opening the new hospital buildings and laying the foundation stone of phase 2 of the Botnar Research Centre. We in the charitable sector and our generous benefactors have opened the way through the research conducted in the Botnar Research Centre to better treatment of many illnesses and the prevention of others.'