The awards emerged from a workshop held at the University of Bath in September 2006, which aimed to capitalise on the complementary strengths in stem cell research and bioengineering across the six institutions.
The first of Bristol’s awards, in collaboration with the University of Bath and UCSD, is for cartilage tissue engineering to help in the treatment of patients with degenerative osteoarthritis. The second is for work on understanding the biology of stem cells and endothelial cells for their use in cardiovascular therapy, again in collaboration with UCSD.
All of the partnerships aim to encourage long-term collaborative research projects.