AN OXFORD University project that could bring together 200 world-leading scientists to tackle serious heart problems in one building has been filed for planning permission.

The Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine would be built on the university’s Old Road campus in Headington. It would seek to ‘tackle the most pressing scientific and clinical problems in developmental biology and regenerative medicine’.

Oxford City Council gave outline permission for part of the Old Road campus in 2013.

The new building would include research and laboratory spaces, a seminar room and meeting rooms. There would also be a coffee lounge and a cycle shelter for staff and visitors.

The British Heart Foundation has been closely linked with the project and has appealed to raise £10m for the new ‘cutting-edge research facility’.

The charity said it has the potential to ‘truly benefit people of all ages from the tiniest baby born with a heart defect to the oldest among us struggling with heart failure.’

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It will be led by Paul Riley, the British Heart Foundation Professor of Regenerative Medicine and chair of development and cell biology at Oxford University.

Professor Riley told the charity: “My vision is a world where heart damage is temporary and repairable. If the Institute becomes a reality, our research discoveries could trigger a revolution in cardiovascular medicine.”

While British Heart Foundation said the scientists will look to ‘fight the irreparable damage caused by heart attack, which can lead to heart failure’ and also ‘carry out studies to improve our understanding of the biology behind congenital heart defects that affect a dozen babies born every day.’

The university’s Old Road campus has seen huge growth since the mid-1990s and is close to the Churchill, John Radcliffe and Warneford Hospitals and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

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The campus also includes the Target Discovery Institute, Big Data Institute, Kennedy Institute and Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics.

The new building would be three storeys tall, with designers saying it would appear to be a ‘two-storey floating box’, which would 'hover above large areas of glazing at ground floor level’.