Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) research into drug delivery mechanisms in the brain and (b) blood-brain barrier research.

The Department delivers research into blood-barrier brain (BBB) and drug delivery research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

NIHR infrastructure provides world-class research expertise, specialist facilities, a research delivery workforce, and support services, which all help to support and deliver research across the National Health Service and wider health and care system, including on the BBB.

Current projects into drug delivery mechanisms in the brain and BBB delivered through NIHR research infrastructure include filter-exchange imaging, a technique with the potential to lead to new clinical initiatives for improved diagnostic and monitoring tools, and a groundbreaking trial to administer a stem cell gene therapy to a child’s brain, circumventing accessibility through the BBB.