Thousands more people nationally – and hundreds in our region - could be screened for deadly inherited heart conditions at the John Radcliffe Hospital after it received a grant to expand a genetic testing service. The funding from the Miles Frost Fund and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) was ... READ MORE
News for Genomic Medicine
England world leaders in the use of Whole Genome Sequencing to diagnose TB
In a world-first, Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) is now being used to identify different strains of tuberculosis, announced Public Health England today. This is the first time that WGS has been used as a diagnostic solution for managing a disease on this scale anywhere in the world. This builds on ... READ MORE
New trial for blindness rewrites the genetic code
Researchers have started a new gene therapy clinical trial to treat X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP), the most common cause of blindness in young people. Retinitis pigmentosa is currently untreatable and leads to a slow and irreversible loss of vision. On 16 March 2017, a 29-year-old British ... READ MORE
Genetic sequencing offers same-day TB testing
Researchers have for the first time shown that standard tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tests can be replaced by a sub-24 hour genetic test applied to the TB bacteria in a patient’s sputum. It currently takes up to two months to obtain the full diagnostic information for a patient with TB, as the ... READ MORE
Public Health Minister Visits Oxford Cancer Hospital ahead of World Cancer Day
Ahead of World Cancer Day on February, Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood highlighted the importance of UK scientific research to beating cancer during a visit to the Churchill Hospital. The Public Health and Innovation Minister saw state-of-the-art clinical trials and facilities for new ... READ MORE
Funding boost for genetics centre
A major University of Oxford genetics research centre that supports Oxford BRC research is to share £118m of new funding. Global medical research funding charity Wellcome has announced funding for The Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics. The aim of the centre is to advance understanding of ... READ MORE
Nanopore genetics breakthrough supported by Oxford BRC
Oxford University’s Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics (WTCHG) and the leading genome analytics company Genomics plc has announced the first sequencing and analysis of multiple human genomes using nanopore technology. The announcement, made on Thursday, December 1, at the Oxford Nanopore ... READ MORE
How baby’s genes influence birth weight and later life disease
New research finds genetic differences that help to explain why some babies are born bigger or smaller than others. It also reveals how genetic differences provide an important link between an individual’s early growth and their chances of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes or heart ... READ MORE
Parents back genetics project at one year milestone
Parents who want to understand the cause of their infant daughter’s immune deficiency are among more than 1,000 people who participated in the first full year of a ground-breaking NHS genetics project in Oxford. Kevin and Corinne Kirk hope a simple blood sample from daughter Evie, ... READ MORE
Gene sequencing offers way to beat global spread of gonorrhoea
With drug-resistant strains of sexually-transmitted infection gonorrhoeae increasing, scientists from Brighton, Oxford University and Public Health England have found that genetic sequencing can track the spread of infection. They show coordinated national and international strategies are required ... READ MORE
Gene therapy shows long-term benefit for treating rare blindness
Pioneering gene therapy has restored some vision to patients with a rare form of genetic blindness for as long as four years, raising hopes it could be used to cure common causes of vision loss, new University of Oxford research published today shows. A technique which involves injecting a virus ... READ MORE
Faster TB results from BRC-backed research
Whole Genome Sequencing is a faster, cheaper and more effective way of diagnosing tuberculosis, according to a new study published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Dr Louise Pankhurst of the University of Oxford and a team of worldwide collaborators including Public Health England ... READ MORE
New test offers breakthrough in IVF success rates
One of the most important factors influencing the success of IVF treatment is the health of the embryo selected for transfer to the womb. Approximately 85 per cent of all embryos transferred do not ultimately go on to produce a baby. In recent years the importance of counting chromosomes in the ... READ MORE
100,000 Genomes Project video online
A talk on a pioneering genetics project being led in the Thames Valley by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust is now available to view online. Director of the Oxford NHS Genomic Medicine Centre and Associate Professor of Molecular Diagnostics for the University of Oxford’s Department of ... READ MORE
Blog: 100,000 Genomes Project will help people for generations to come
By Dr Angela Hamblin, Molecular Diagnostic Research Fellow at the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre The wait is over! The Oxford NHS Genomic Medicine Centre is now the first centre in the country open to recruit patients with cancer into Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project. This ... READ MORE
Recruitment begins on major genetics project
A project to unravel the genetic changes underlying rare disease and cancers of more than 1,200 patients and their families who are looked after by Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (OUHT) has started. The project will aid research, improve diagnosis and ultimately clinical outcomes so NHS ... READ MORE
New TB test to get sufferers on right drugs sooner
Tuberculosis sufferers will be able get drug treatment sooner thanks to a new whole genome sequencing technique to determine for the first time which drugs to give sufferers, researchers in Oxford have reported. University of Oxford researchers at the John Radcliffe Hospital have developed a ... READ MORE
Project brings Whole Genome Sequencing into the clinic
More than 10 years after the completion of the Human Genome Project doctors are a step closer to using whole genome sequencing to diagnose and treat patients with genetic diseases. This follows a study by researchers from the University of Oxford and the DNA sequencing company Illumina. Results ... READ MORE
Gene sequencing test for cancer patients on the NHS
The first multi-gene DNA sequencing test that can help predict cancer patients’ responses to treatment has been launched in the National Health Service (NHS), thanks to a partnership between scientists at the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. The test uses the latest ... READ MORE
New understanding of craniosynostosis will help families and treatment centres
RESEARCHERS in Oxford have discovered two new genetic causes of craniosynostosis - a rare bone condition that can inhibit brain growth in children. The work will give affected families much greater understanding of the condition and inform patient treatment plans. Andrew Wilkie, Nuffield ... READ MORE