Award for Outstanding Research

Investigating and treating diseases of the brain

In 2003 Professor Ignacio Romero and Professor David Male developed an immortalised cell line, from human brain endothelium – the cells that line blood vessels in the brain, in collaboration with a laboratory in Paris. This helped to solve one of the major problems associated with the investigation and treatment of diseases of the brain.

The cell line was patented and has since generated £118,000 in royalties for The Open University. It has been used as the basis for a tissue-culture model of the human blood-brain barrier by more than 160 research laboratories and adopted under license by 12 major pharmaceutical companies.

Watch the video to hear more about Professors Romero and Male's research:

Formulating policy about protecting heritage from war

Derek Matravers, OU Professor of Philosophy, teamed up with one of the world’s leading Just War theorists, Helen Frowe of the Stockholm Centre for the Ethics of War and Peace and received £410,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to fund the ‘Heritage in War Project’. This project now works with a range of home and international partners, (including the British Museum, the West Point Military Academy, and the Norwegian Council for the Ethics of the Defence Sector). In doing so, it will contribute both to the theoretical literature and to practical matters such as the formulation of policy.