Five Oxford researchers given million-pound backing

Five exceptional medical researchers at Oxford University have been given significant funding to pursue their research goals, the Wellcome Trust has announced. That means a quarter of the Trust's Senior Investigator Awards have gone to researchers based at Oxford - the largest number of any institution. The awards are designed to provide funding that will give these scientists the flexibility and time they need to tackle important research questions. The Wellcome Trust Senior Investigators at Oxford are Professor Fiona Powrie, Professor Peter Rothwell and Professor Adrian Hill together with Professor Peter Donnelly and Professor Patrik Rorsman. They are named among the 20 Senior Investigators and 7 New Investigators the Wellcome Trust has appointed. The Trust is investing a total of £56 million worth of funding in these researchers addressing the most important questions about health and disease, with individual awards ranging from around £1 million to £3 million. The awards will see the scientists look at ambitious and diverse research topics, from using stem cells to help the body mend itself to looking at how physical activity during pregnancy affects a child's health in later life and understanding the underlying neurobiology of conditions such as epilepsy.