Northern Care Alliance (NCA) NHS Foundation Trust, including The Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences (MCCN) and The Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre (NCA partnership), have joined the prestigious iMATCH Consortium, a Manchester-based group aiming to improve access to advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) for patients.

Colleagues at MCCN and the Brain Research Centre are working towards the delivery of advanced therapy clinical trials and bring a wealth of neurological expertise to the Consortium, which also includes The University of Manchester, The Christie, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and nine commercial partners.

Omar Pathmanaban, Consultant Neurosurgeon and Strategic Development Lead at the Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre, said: “We are delighted to be joining the iMATCH consortium, which represents an important step for us to make sure that our patients with conditions such as brain tumours, strokes, Parkinson’s disease and brain inflammation benefit from new advanced therapies. These new treatments use patients’ own cells as a way to treat their illness after removing them and treating them to encourage disease fighting properties when they are placed back into their body. This may include killing a brain tumour, correcting a genetic disease or helping the body to recover and regenerate after a stroke.”