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 including 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.
Read the full story on the University of Oxford website.