Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust awards £5 million to Oriel

The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust has awarded £5 million to University College London (UCL) in partnership with Moorfields Eye Charity and Moorfields Eye Hospital.

The funding will be used to establish the Sir Jules Thorn Investigation Centre within Oriel – an eye care, research and education hub that is due to open in Camden in 2027.

Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust director, Richard Benson, shared that the charity is “delighted” to support the new integrated eye health centre.

“We hope that the new translational research facilities will contribute to scientific breakthroughs which will rapidly lead to faster diagnostics, and to new therapies for patients in the UK and across the world,” he said.

UCL president and provost, Dr Michael Spence, shared that Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust’s support would help to advance research.

“The use of advanced imaging, together with an unrivalled informatics platform to target specific clinical cohorts, will facilitate our execution of smaller, faster, more stratified clinical trials with higher chances of success,” he said.

Moorfields Eye Charity chief executive, Robert Dufton, highlighted that the investment will help to bring new treatments to the patients who need them.

“This investment in research will be enhanced by Moorfields’ access to a very large patient population with eye conditions that range from the very rare to the common, and affecting people of all ages,” he said.

Main image: an architectural impression of the exterior view of Oriel. Credit: Moorfields Eye Hospital.