The Medical Sciences Division is an internationally recognized centre of excellence for biomedical and clinical research and teaching and is the largest of the four academic divisions within the University. The Division comprises 16 departments, and their constituent units, institutes and centres, spread across three sites in Oxford (the Science Area, Old Road and hospital sites in Headington) and includes numerous clinical research units in Africa and Asia. Our long standing partnerships with local NHS Trust, which include the establishment of the NIHR-funded Oxford Biomedical Research Centre with the Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, a longstanding close association with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, and newer collaborations with the Oxford Academic Health Sciences Network (OAHSN) and the Academic Health Sciences Centres (AHSC), enable patients to benefit from close links between medical research and healthcare delivery. This builds on our already impressive historical record; medical scientists at Oxford have, among many achievements, led the development of penicillin, laid the groundwork for immunisation by discovering how antibodies and the immune system work and have also provided incontrovertible evidence for the link between smoking and cancer.