Institute heralds new dawn of discovery science
28 November 2007
Scientists at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh are pooling their expertise with scientists from the University of Edinburgh and Cancer Research UK to form a new institute that will help pioneer innovative approaches to treating common diseases.
The Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM) brings together research specialists in every area relevant to human biology, from the basic genetics of health through to the issues surrounding end-of-life care. The scientific themes of the IGMM are population genetics, the genetics of common and complex diseases, brain biology and disease, paediatrics and cancer.
Professor Nick Hastie at the opening of the IGMM
IGMM, led by Professor Nick Hastie, Director of the Human Genetics Unit, will combine expertise in illnesses such as schizophrenia, cancer, arthritis and bowel disease, with the aim of learning lessons from each condition that could inform others. The role that genes have in disease development will be an essential element of the research programme. Professor Hastie said:
“This institute heralds a new dawn of discovery science for human health. Here we can study every phase of human biology from genetic determinants of disease to the way lifestyle factors affect our health, and together achieve our goal of offering more effective and personalised medical treatment.”
IGMM was opened officially on Tuesday 27 November by MRC Chief Executive, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, and Edinburgh University Vice Principal Professor John Savill. Sir Leszek said:
“As science moves ahead, we have to enter a new world of partnership working, and this institute epitomises the type of partnership we need. It represents a major achievement for those involved, and the funders backing the institute see the added value that will result from combining the many different areas of expertise in these establishments.”
One focus of the institute is to develop non-toxic cancer treatments that could prevent tumours spreading around the body, thus helping people to live with cancer as a chronic condition, like diabetes, rather than die from it. A research programme, led by Professor Margaret Frame, will study signal transduction pathways – the biochemical mechanisms that allow cancers to spread – and develop ways of halting that process to prolong and improve a patient’s quality of life.
Professor Frame, one of the first senior scientists to be recruited to IGMM, said:
“After years of ground-breaking research, we have become much better at detecting and treating many forms of cancer. But there are still many cancers that are resistant to current therapies, and there is a real need to discover new ways of slowing down the spread of the disease.
“It’s time for a new approach. Cancer specialists are experts in studying tumours, but if, for example, we want to stop breast cancers spreading to the spine, we need to learn from experts in bone disease. This new institute will facilitate that process by prompting scientists and doctors in different disciplines to work together and help us to develop entirely new ways of thinking about cancer treatment.”
IGMM – which will conduct £150m of research activity over the next five years – will establish a unique working environment for over 500 scientists as well as providing opportunities for:
- Joint recruitment – IGMM will attract internationally-renowned specialists to advance knowledge and understanding of common diseases
- Joint expertise – IGMM projects will span all disciplines of medical research from laboratory scientists to hospital clinicians
- Joint training of postgraduate students and clinical fellows
- Joint funding – IGMM will compete at the highest level for international grants, and has already been successful in securing a £5m grant from Breakthrough Breast Cancer
IGMM is based at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, and incorporates the MRC Human Genetics Unit, the University of Edinburgh Centre for Molecular Medicine and the Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre. It will have full access to the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility.
More information is available at www.igmm.ac.uk
Press contact
Phone: 020 7637 6011
press.office@headoffice.mrc.ac.uk
