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GENOMES PROJECT/Brilliant News for Medical Research and the UK

(9 Posts)
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POGS Fri 01-Aug-14 19:06:50

I think this is very good news for medical research and possibly for the UK PLC. Certainly for us.

The government have committed £300 million pounds so far to the Genomes Project which will map 100,000 DNA code sequences of patients with cancer and rare diseases and some of their close families. The Project is due to be completed by 2017/2018.

The Project has been announced for a few days now I know so I am sure most GN'S know all about it, but if it does succeed then it is said it could revolutionize medicine.

Basically it is the personalising of treatments for patients using their genetic DNA. The hope is drugs will be designed that will target a tumour and healthy tissue will be unharmed, side effects such as hair loss etc. could become a thing of the past. Researchers are looking for changes to our genetic code and the effects it has on our health and possible cause for us to develop illnesses such as cancer.

The UK will be a world leader in this research and I think the government and the Department of Health deserve a pat on the back. It could not only treat cancers such as bowel, breast, ovarian and lungs, it is also looking at other rare diseases too. The potential for the development and research for the UK is amazing.

Just imagine if the thoughts of those involved in the Project are correct and drugs and therapies in 20 years time will be so advanced the old days of chemotherapy and it's side effects could be a thing of the past.

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suebailey1 Sat 02-Aug-14 09:14:57

My daughter used to work at the Sanger institute in Cambridge (where the Human Genome was first discovered- she was a HR Consultant not a scientist I hasten to add) and she was very happy there she said it was a fascinating place to work- she only left to relocate to 'up North' with her husband who is a scientist.

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shoreham55 Fri 08-Aug-14 06:22:08

great research. Huge fan of innovation. Let's hope the fabulous therapeutic advances it can stimulate are not misappropriated for malevolent use to facilitate discrimination in access to services etc. Our privacy is vital and once our genomes become part of the datasets accessible to insurance companies and others, it will be all too easy for them to discriminate arbitrarily for profit. The involvement of private companies requires respect for the precautionary principle.

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JessM Fri 08-Aug-14 06:44:47

Governments need to fund basic research like this, or it ain't going to get done. It is a great pity that they messed up the attempt to give researchers anonymised data about medical records as well, a few months back. I hope that this will be sorted out as this also would be a useful research tool.

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Annaries Fri 08-Aug-14 15:04:23

Why is it something to get so excited about?
£300 million could come in very useful in the NHS as it is.
On the news this morning there was talk of Nice not funding a cancer drug because it cost too much. That money would fund 3000 women with advanced breat cancer for a year.

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POGS Mon 22-Dec-14 14:03:22

Bump

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POGS Mon 22-Dec-14 14:09:11

I know I have bumped this thread but I still think it's excellent news and just wanted to say so.

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FlicketyB Mon 22-Dec-14 15:42:24

Annaries, if this project goes ahead it is possible that 3,000 women who would have reached the advanced cancer stage and needed this drug will have had such an accurate diagnosis of their cancer and such targeted treatment in the early stages that they do not reach the advanced cancer stage.

It offers the potential for treatment matched to an individuals particular genetic weakness and form of the disease and will save the lives of many, many people.

A close friend died from cancer this year that developed as the result of a very rare illness they had that was the result of their genetic inheritance. Having their DNA sequenced early in their illness would have enabled the illness to be properly identified and treated much earlier than it was and this would possible have delayed or stopped the cancer developing. It would, certainly, have enabled doctors to target the treatment of the cancer and they may well have been with us still.

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POGS Mon 22-Dec-14 18:54:40

Flickety

Good post

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