Two new research centres, set to be led by researchers from the University of Oxford, aim to develop advanced treatments for currently untreatable diseases.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) is launching its first two Centres of Research Excellence in an effort to create transformative new advanced therapeutics for currently untreatable diseases.
Oxford University is set to lead one of these centres and co-lead the other.
Together, these international collaborations will receive up to £50 million each over 14 years.
Using genomics to advance therapies for untreatable diseases
The centres will build on recent progress made in genomics, which has allowed the identification of the genetic basis of many diseases and processes, as well as advances in genome editing and other gene therapies.
This progress has made it possible to develop treatments for previously untreatable diseases.
The centres will take different approaches to translate the advances in genomics into therapies to treat many diseases.
These include heart disease, severe immune disorders, genetic causes of blindness, many developmental disorders that affect children, including those that cause severe seizures in babies, and neurodegenerative conditions, including Huntington’s disease.
Advanced therapy for heart failure
One of the centres, the MRC/BHF Centre of Research Excellence in Advanced Cardiac Therapies, will be co-funded with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and will focus on developing gene therapies for heart disease.
It will aim to develop the first therapies to stimulate heart repair and regeneration in patients following a heart attack and in those with established heart failure.
Professor Paul Riley, a co-director of the MRC/BHF Centre of Research Excellence in Advanced Cardiac Therapies, explained: “To tackle untreatable diseases like heart disease, it’s critical that any therapy we develop needs to be globally applicable and affordable, so it can be rolled out at cost and embedded in healthcare systems.
“Our goal is to bring one or more novel advanced therapies for heart failure to be ready for clinical trials in the first seven years of the programme.”
Producing affordable, cutting-edge gene therapies
The other centre, the MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Therapeutic Genomics, will aim to make rare genetic disorders treatable by enabling the mass production of affordable, cutting-edge gene therapies.
It will aim to develop therapies for rare disorders that cause severe seizures in infants and neurodevelopmental delay, as well as certain types of blindness and immune disorders.
Professor Stephan Sanders, director of the new MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Therapeutic Genomics, concluded: “Reprogramming genetic therapies has the potential to treat thousands of genetic disorders.
“The new centre will help create a paradigm shift in the knowledge, infrastructure, technology, and industry regulation so that we can make safe and effective patient-customised therapies en masse.”
