The Medical Research Council (MRC), part of UKRI, is launching its first two Centres of Research Excellence (CoRE), which will develop transformative new advanced therapeutics for currently untreatable diseases. Oxford is leading one of these centres and co-leading the other. Together, these international collaborations will receive up to £50 million each over 14 years.
The centres will build on the huge progress that has been made in genomics – allowing the genetic basis of many diseases and processes to be identified – and advances in genome editing and other gene therapies, which have made it possible to develop treatments for previously incurable conditions.
The centres will take different approaches to translating the advances in genomics into therapies to treat many diseases, such as 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 such as Huntingdon’s disease.
One centre, called 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.
The other centre, called the MRC Centre of Research Excellence in Therapeutic Genomics, aims to make rare genetic disorders treatable by enabling the mass production of affordable cutting-edge gene therapies.
Oxford institutions involved in the new Centres include the Institute of Developmental and Regenerative Medicine (IDRM), the Department of Paediatrics, the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG), the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences (NDCN) and the Radcliffe Department of Medicine.
The MRC’s new CoRE funding model aims to transform biomedical and health research by revolutionising approaches to prevention, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of diseases by bringing together the very best researchers to tackle the challenge, wherever they are based. In addition, the centres will be beacons of excellence driving positive changes in research culture, and in training the next generation of pioneers in the field.
Much of this research overlaps with that being conducted in the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre’s Themes.
A number of the Oxford BRC’s patient and public involvement participants were involved in developing the bid for the MRC CoRE in Therapeutic Genomics, and ensuring that it meets the needs of patients.