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World class researchers in gene tie-up |
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Written by Lautaro Vargas
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Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
 Professor Nick Wareham
Both GSK and MRC will invest £1 million each over three years as they seek to translate observations from their genetic association studies. It is expected that the partners’ new collaborative model will speed the translation of genetic insights into new concepts for therapy and other benefits for patients.
The programme will pilot a new way of working between the two organisations, bringing together academic and industrial expertise and resources in areas of mutual interest through joint funding and sharing from large databases and sample collections held by the partners.
The partners say this approach of combining data sets is necessary in order to increase the statistical robustness of studies and to enable the definitive identification of genes at the root of a disease.
As part of the collaboration, GSK will make extensive data acquired from large disease-related and population-based genetic studies available. The GSK collections have considerable potential to better link genetic traits to detailed variations in phenotypes.
Professor Nick Wareham at the MRC Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge who is leading one of two projects funded under the collaboration said: “It’s a question of scale. We need to increase the scale of the studies and in the case of the work with GSK, its bringing together larger numbers of cohorts.”
Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, MRC chief executive, added: “Collaborating to produce larger cohorts and hence more statistically significant results, will allow us to identify genetic and other contributors to disease more quickly and maximise benefits for future patients.
“This type of project is a testament to the collaborative working relationship which exists between public and private research in the UK and allows both to thrive.”
Dr Patrick Vallance, senior vice president Drug Discovery at GSK, believes the collaboration is an important step in the evolution of genetics research. He said: “The genetics of human diseases has come of age and GSK wants to make the most of current knowledge and research to significantly impact treatment options.
“We have worked hard to collect and refine our data but we now need to take a bold step forwards and work with others to uncover the new disease targets and genetic variations that are useful to inform drug discovery and development.”
The programme will be managed by a joint MRC-GSK Steering Group, which will oversee the funding and progress of projects. To mark the creation of this partnership two major awards are being announced.
One will support research on depression where the genetic basis is complicated and the underlying mechanisms not well understood and will be run at the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, London.
The second project, run by Prof Wareham, is focused on using large population-based cohorts to identify new genetic variants associated with obesity and related metabolic disorders and to more precisely localise the causal variant underlying the genetic signal.
Prof Wareham is also hopeful the collaboration will provide a link to further investment from MRC in experimental medicines.
“By making the most of existing investments, the MRC can support the very best research into the patterns and causes of disease,” added Sir Leszek.
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