The Babraham Institute, set in an extensive parkland estate just south of Cambridge, is an independent charitable life sciences institute involved in biomedical research. The aim of this research is to discover the molecular mechanisms that underlie normal cellular processes and functions, and how their failure or abnormality may lead to disease. The Babraham Institute is sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is a UK Research Council and NDPB and is the largest UK public funder of non-medical bioscience...

 (BBSRC) and is based in Babraham

Babraham

Babraham is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district of Cambridgeshire, England, about six miles south-east of Cambridge on the A1307 road....

, Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The institute has the status of a postgraduate department within the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 and trains PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 students who are registered with the University's Faculty of Biology. The institute was previously known as the A.R.C.

Agricultural and Food Research Council

The Agricultural and Food Research Council , was a British Research Council responsible for funding and managing scientific and technological developments in farming and horticulture....

 Institute of Animal Physiology, Babraham.

Babraham Bioscience Technologies Ltd (BBT), the wholly owned trading subsidiary of the Babraham Institute promotes knowledge transfer and translation of the Institute’s research discoveries, actively managing and exploiting the Institute’s intellectual property, promoting and negotiating commercial research partnerships and establishing spin-out companies when appropriate.

The institute is situated six miles outside Cambridge by the Gog Magog Downs

Gog Magog Downs

The Gog Magog Downs are a range of low chalk hills, extending for several miles to the southeast of Cambridge in England. The highest points are marked on Ordnance Survey 1:25000 maps as "Telegraph Clump"Telegraph Clump, at , Little Trees HillLittle Trees Hill, and Wandlebury Hill,Wandlebury...

, close to where the Via Devana

Via Devana

The Via Devana was a Roman Road in England that ran from Colchester in the south-east to Chester in the north-west. Both were important Roman military centres and it is conjectured that the main reason the road was constructed was military rather than civilian. The Latin name for Chester is Deva...

, crossed the prehistoric Icknield Way

Icknield Way

The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern England. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills.-Background:...

. The estate includes Babraham Hall, designed by Philip Hardwick

Philip Hardwick

Philip Hardwick was an eminent English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere...

, which was built between 1832-37.