Since launching in September 2024, the LifeArc Centre for Rare Respiratory Diseases has made significant strides in establishing a strong foundation for discovery, collaboration, and impact.
One of our early successes has been building the Centre’s team. Across the UK new postdoctoral researchers, technical staff, and leadership roles have been appointed — creating the expertise needed to drive forward our ambitious programme through our five work-packages. From genome editing and organoid modelling, to biobanking and drug discovery, these appointments are already accelerating progress across the Centre. The Centre Manager and delivery teams are now in place, embedding strong governance and ensuring smooth coordination across our consortia universities, patient partners, NHS and industry collaborators.
We’ve also begun to strengthen patient partnerships. Engagement with our core patient organisations has the Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) Strategy, and we have created and launched our Lived Experience Patient Advisory Panel. This ensures lived experience sits at the heart of our decision-making and research priorities.
Scientific progress is already underway. Work is advancing on disease models for Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia and rare interstitial lung diseases, the development of scalable biobank and registry protocols, and early therapeutic screening approaches. Alongside this, our researchers have actively contributed to international meetings and workshops, raising the Centre’s profile and sharing our vision for faster diagnosis and better therapies.
We are privileged also to have recently brought together our new Independent Advisory Board who will be led by Professor James Chalmers from the University of Dundee.
Our first few months have been about laying the foundations — assembling the right people, creating the governance structures, and setting shared priorities. With our teams now in place and momentum building, the next stage is about delivering on our vision: turning scientific discovery into real-life solutions for people with rare respiratory diseases.
