CRF studies in NIHR’s 2024/25 Annual Report

The Department of Health and Social Care has today, Thursday 17 July 2025, published the NIHR’s annual report for 2024/25, demonstrating the NIHR’s profound impact on the health and wealth of the nation.

The report showcases how research funded by the DHSC and delivered through its research arm, the NIHR, has improved lives and made a difference to families and communities. It highlights how NIHR research is playing a key role supporting the health mission central to the government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England and why it’s at the very heart of the government’s plans to turbocharge medical research. The report also underlines the NIHR’s important contribution to the UK economy, saving money for the NHS and care services as well as supporting thousands of jobs across the country.

We’re excited to share with you that two NIHR Cambridge CRF and NIHR Cambridge BRC supported studies, have been featured as part of this year’s NIHR Annual Report highlights.

• ‘Capsule sponge’ used in landmark oesophageal cancer screening trial’
• ‘Pioneering genetic therapies provided to children’

This inclusion reflects the important contribution our work has made to health and care research and we’re proud to share it.

Capsule sponge’ used in landmark oesophageal cancer screening trial

A screening trial for a quick, accurate and low-cost test to detect oesophageal cancer was launched in November 2024.

Patients who regularly take heartburn medication are being invited to take part in the BEST4 trial. They swallow a small pill attached to a thread, which dissolves in the stomach to release a sponge the size of a 50p coin. The sponge collects cells from the oesophagus as it is gently pulled out.

The test takes 10 minutes and can be done by a nurse, making it faster and less expensive than endoscopy. A previous trial, BEST3, which was supported by the NIHR, showed the sponge picks up 10 times more cases of Barrett’s oesophagus – a precursor condition to cancer – than endoscopy.

Screening vans will be rolled out across England as part of the trial, to bring this research closer into communities and reduce lives lost to cancer. It is co-funded by NIHR’s Health Technology Assessment Programme and Cancer Research UK and led by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge. This study received support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility and NIHR East of England Regional Research Delivery Network. The team won an NIHR Impact Prize in 2025 for their work.

“The NIHR provided highly valued funding to expand my research programme and generated crucial evidence to bring capsule sponge testing to more patients. It also created greater visibility within my own organisation, which was essential to advance my career and pursue opportunities for leadership.”
Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, NIHR Senior Investigator

Pioneering genetic therapies provided to children

The NIHR has supported 2 pioneering genetic therapies which have changed many children’s lives over the past year.

A baby girl who was born deaf can now hear unaided after a world-first gene therapy trial supported by the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility and NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Opal from Oxfordshire has auditory neuropathy, a condition which disrupts nerve impulses travelling from the inner ear to the brain. This can be caused by a fault in the OTOF gene. The new therapy delivers a working copy of the gene via a neutralised virus, injected into the inner ear under general anaesthetic.

Opal was just under a year old when she became the first patient to be treated in the trial, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Twenty-four weeks later, she had close to normal hearing in her treated ear. At 18 months old, Opal could respond to her parents’ voices and say “Dada” and “bye-bye.”

While we recognise that with the right support from the start, deafness should never be a barrier to happiness or fulfilment, this research supports families to make informed choices about medical technologies, so that they can give their children the best possible start in life.