Innovating progress
The Steel City has long been renowned as a powerhouse and innovator, forging the very tools and materials that built our modern world. Now Sheffield is on the rise once again, changing the world as it goes - and today, that change is University-led.
In brief:
- We're a leading UK example of innovative university-driven economic development, creating thousands of local jobs and opportunities
- Over 160 partner companies invest in our renowned research and manufacturing, from industry giants to ambitious new start-ups
- Your help makes key enterprise hubs - like our Advanced Manufacturing Research and Gene Therapy Innovation Centres - powerful drivers of regional growth
Sheffield: the original influencer
Everywhere you look, you’ll find continuing evidence of the University’s role in delivering progress, innovation, and profound social benefit to the wider region.
Further progress for partnerships, enterprise and the high-value knowledge economy that’s sprung up across South Yorkshire can only be made with your continued support.
Case study: Gene Therapy Innovation and Manufacturing Centre (GTIMC)
Gene therapy is a promising treatment option for more than 7,000 rare diseases that currently have no cure - and Sheffield’s GTIMC innovation hub is dramatically broadening the scope of gene therapy research in the UK.
Pioneering facilities right here in South Yorkshire
Featuring state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment, an extensive clinical database and a large resource of human biosamples, the GTIMC has earned a reputation as a leading world player in gene therapy research and innovation.
The Centre brings together NHS, industry and academic partners from the North, the Midlands and Wales. Their pioneering collaborations have proven effective in translating scientific breakthroughs into new and exciting treatments for patients, and delivering them to the people who need them faster than ever before.
Sheffield has emerged as a leading player in gene therapy, and the future is bright. GTIMC will allow us to keep pace with translational discoveries for new and potentially life-changing treatments.
Professor Mimoun Azzouz
Chair of Translational Neuroscience
Changing the lives of children with devastating disease
Cutting-edge clinical trials at the GTIMC have shown some incredible potential. They've led to the development of a life-changing treatment - Zolgensma - for children with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
This cruel disease is one of the most common genetic causes of infant death. Yet now, children who took part in the trial are achieving incredible developmental milestones, where they previously would have declined. Children like Sebastian.
I'm insanely proud of Sheffield. Gene therapy has changed our lives, it's revolutionary. You never know who'll be affected by a rare disease - my son having SMA doesn't just affect him, but all those connected to us. Knowing that Sebastian will not deteriorate and regress is such peace in our hearts and our minds. It's saved his life, and more.
When you donate, you're not only helping to fund research into disease-altering medicine, and you're not only helping the individual with the rare disease. You're changing the lives of an entire network of people who'll be forever impacted by that diagnosis. It's so much more than 'just' a donation.
Dharmisha Stezaly
Sheffield graduate and mum to Sebastian, who received a treatment of Zolgensma for his SMA
You can support this regional hub of innovation
Pioneering research at the GTIMC is offering new hope to people living with a wide range of devastating inherited conditions all around the world. Recent advances have brought real optimism for the discovery of a permanent cure in our own backyard.
With your support, Sheffield will continue to lead the way in moving bold new treatments forward for the patients and families that so desperately need them.
Blaze the trail with us
Sheffield is continuing to blaze a trail for South Yorkshire on an international stage, and your support is helping us to bring all our communities along on that journey.
Be a part of it