13 August 2012
The
anti-doping laboratories built for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
will be developed into the world's first Phenome Research Centre; the term 'phenome'
referring to the overall expression of a person's characteristics and traits as determined by the interaction of genetics and environment.
Announcing the new facility, the Prime Minister,
David Cameron, said the centre would 'take advantage of the extraordinary
opportunities that lie in combining genetic data with the results of medical
tests on tissues and blood. It will allow us to understand the characteristics
of disease and how these link into genes and our environment'.
The
testing facility, originally a partnership between drug control scientists at
King's College London and owners GlaxoSmithKline, is based in Harlow, Essex. The
lab tests blood and urine samples of every medallist and a randomised selection
of other athletes for more than 240 banned substances.
The
Phenome Centre project will use a portion of the lab's equipment to analyse
patient and volunteer samples to look for biological markers of disease present
in the human phenome.
Funding
for the centre for its first five years has been secured by £5 million
investments from both the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for
Health Research (NIHR). Operations at the centre will be led by a collaboration
of universities headed by Imperial College London with the aim of analysing up
to 25,000 samples in the first year and scaling up to analyse an estimated
100,000 samples in the years after. The labs will still be available for use by
private medical companies.
According
to a statement released by the MRC, researchers will be able to analyse samples
'very rapidly and on an unprecedented scale. This will help them to discover
new "biomarkers" to explain why one individual or population may be
more susceptible to a disease than another'.
Health
Secretary Andrew Lansley said that research performed at the centre 'promises
better targeted treatments for patients with a wide range of diseases, such as
diabetes, heart disease and dementia'.
Mr
Cameron announced the opening of the MRC-NIHR Phenome Research Centre at the
Global Health Policy Summit in London. The switch over from anti-doping
operations is planned for early October with business expected to start in January
2013.
SOURCES & REFERENCES
|
Medical Research Council (press release)
|
1 August 2012
|
|
BBC News
|
1 August 2012
|
|
BBC News
|
1 August 2012
|
|
Daily Telegraph
|
1 August 2012
|
|
ScienceInsider
|
1 August 2012
|
RELATED ARTICLES FROM THE BIONEWS ARCHIVE
|
13 January 2014 - by Daryl Ramai |
The New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced a US$105 million partnership between the New York Genome Center (NYGC) and the University of Buffalo (UB) to accelerate genomic research in the region.... |
|
7 October 2013 - by Rhys Baker |
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced a new partnership between Genomics England and Cancer Research UK as part of a Government bid to make the UK the first country in the world to sequence 100,000 genomes within five years.... |
|
29 April 2013 - by Ruth Retassie |
The University of Glasgow will receive £20 million to develop a research centre dedicated to personalised medicine... |
|
4 February 2013 - by David O'Rourke |
The planned Tumuor Profiling Unit at The Institute for Cancer Research, London will focus on sequencing the DNA of cancer tumours to help diagnose and monitor different types of cancer, and to also identify those more likely to respond to particular treatments.... |
|
12 November 2012 - by Dr Rachael Panizzo |
The Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council have announced a £12.75 million investment to create a database of induced pluripotent stem) cells.... |
|
30 July 2012 - by Sandy Starr |
Last year, the Progress Educational Trust (PET) conducted a poll as part of its Wellcome Trust supported project 'Genes, Ancestry and Racial Identity: Does It Matter Where Your Genes Come From?' At three public events held under this project's auspices, attendees were asked to suggest questions for PET to put to the public, and the resulting online poll elicited 637 responses... |
|
31 January 2012 - by Dr Linda Wijlaars |
Genomic medicine will be at the forefront of the NHS, according to a report released last week by the Human Genomics Strategy Group (HGSG). The report highlights the UK's achievements in genomic technology to date and makes six recommendations to ensure future benefit of genomic innovation within the NHS... |
|
28 November 2011 - by Eleanor White |
Would you let your 10-year-old child sit out of PE classes if they were not built for sport? Would it inspire you to do better if you found out your genes indicated that you're not likely to succeed at it? Or would it demoralise you to the point that you give up on something you love?... |
|
15 February 2010 - by Dr Sophie Pryor |
Researchers have expressed concern about athlete's use of genetic tools in the 'next generation' of illegal doping, and have stressed the importance of developing reliable new detection tests to stop them. Writing in the journal Science, Theodore Friedmann and colleagues at the University of California warn that 'the time is right to look at how advances in genetics are affecting sport'. The authors highlight the dangers of using imperfect and 'highly risky' genetic techniques, which may have... |