Medical research centre receives funding

The University of Glasgow has been awarded £3.4m to create a leading medical centre for precision medicine.

Funding from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has been granted to six molecular pathology nodes in the UK, with Glasgow receiving the largest award.

In collaboration with industry partners, the project will allow experts at the new £842m Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to find treatments based on an individual patients’ own physiology and response to diseases, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.

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Professor Anna Dominiczak, Vice Principal and Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow, said: “The goal of precision medicine is to provide the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time, for the right cost and the right outcome.

“We now understand more about abnormalities in DNA and other molecules which occur in disease. 

“This so-called ‘molecular pathology’ is revealing significant variation in diseases which by standard classifications, for example by a pathologist using a microscope, have been indistinguishable. 

“So, for instance, we now know that pancreatic cancer is not just one disease but many different ones, potentially with different treatments.”

The University of Glasgow is already regarded as a world leader in precision medicine, with facilities including the £20m Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre, £32m Imaging Centre of Excellence, and £30m Queen Elizabeth Teaching and Learning Centre. 

£2m has also been granted to the Edinburgh-St Andrews Consortium for Molecular Pathology Informatics and Genome Sciences, which will integrate state-of-the-art genomic and epigenomic methods for diagnosis of acutely ill children and will develop ‘liquid biopsies’ for managing cancer through analysis of circulating tumour DNA.

UK Minister for Life Sciences, George Freeman MP, said: “Investment in projects at the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews will enhance our UK-wide capability to deliver 21st Century diagnostics and complement initiatives such as the Precision Medicine Catapult Centre to make sure that ground-breaking medicines technologies are adopted by the NHS and delivered to patients as quickly as possible.”