Scientists are to pool their expertise in human health to pioneer an innovative approach to treating common diseases.
A new institute in Edinburgh brings together research specialists in every area of human biology, from the basic genetics of health through to the issues surrounding end-of-life care.
The Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine (IGMM) – opened officially today - has been formed in partnership by the Medical Research Council (MRC), the University of Edinburgh, and Cancer Research UK.
IGMM - spearheaded by Professor Nick Hastie from the MRC's 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 also be an essential element of the research programme.
One major 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.
Professor Hastie, director of the institute, said: “Research into targeted, protracted treatment of cancer is a perfect example of what can happen when scientists join forces.
“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.”
A research programme, led by Cancer Research UK's 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.
Prof Frame, Chair of Cancer Biology at the University of Edinburgh, 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.