This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Genetics research funding
14/11/2003
A new £4 million project to support
research into the causes of genetic diseases has been
announced.
The Genetics and Healthcare Initiative
(GHI), jointly funded by the Executive's Health and
Enterprise departments, seeks to build on Scotland's
existing academic, clinical and biotechnological strengths
in this field.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm
said:
"This joint investment has great
potential for bringing long term benefits for healthcare
and science and, most importantly, for patients.
"We believe the long term results from
this initiative will significantly add to our understanding
of this complex area. The importance for patients will be
that for the first time we will have much greater insight
into their risk of developing disease and the potential for
developing novel therapies.
"That is the challenge facing genetic
research. We must improve our knowledge of our own genetic
make up. We must also increase our understanding of how
this determines the diseases we live with or die from."
A distinctive feature of the
initiative will be its focus on how large a role genetics
play in contributing to Scotland's ill health.
Other UK studies are targeting healthy
middle-aged volunteers but GHI will seek to recruit, only
with full consent, a much wider age range of actual
sufferers and their relatives, including younger
people.
Enterprise Minister Jim Wallace
said:
"We can build something truly exciting
and visionary. This offers real scope to deliver major
economic benefits for Scotland. Importantly, it complements
the developments already underway in the area of
biotechnology and life sciences - including the new
Intermediary Technology Institutes."
Scottish Enterprise's chief executive
Robert Crawford said:
"We see great opportunities for the
knowledge created and the economic benefits from this
far-sighted project. Helping to develop new biotechnology
businesses, providing unique resources to the Scottish
biotechnology community and attracting collaboration with
major international companies is our joint objective.
Scottish Enterprise will work closely with the Executive to
support and encourage the delivery of this project."
Details of the programme will be
announced in the New Year along when applications will be
invited to run it. It will encourage collaboration among
existing Scottish centres of excellence. The Executive
plans to announce the successful bidder by summer next
year.
The £4 million budget comes equally
from the Health department and Enterprise, Transport and
Life Long Learning department. It provides funding to
launch the initiative and includes provision for some
capital expenditure.
The Genetics and Healthcare Initiative
complements several other programmes. Scotland is an active
contributor to the UK Biobank initiative. Biobank seeks to
recruit healthy volunteers. By comparison, the Genetics and
Healthcare initiative will focus on those already diagnosed
as suffering from a more serious condition and aim to
recruit relatives so that genetic patterns can be
established.
Those bidding to run the programme
will be required to demonstrate that all information will
be held in an anonymised form and must show that individual
privacy will be robustly protected.
Scotland's NHS Information and
Statistics Division collects a range of data for to help
health service planning. Research participants will be
asked to authorise linkage of their genetic information
with that held by ISD. This will help to determine how much
ill health is an inherited trait and the extent to which
other factors, such as lifestyle, are influential.
The Executive will seek applications
to run the programme. The successful applicant is likely to
combine a breadth of academic excellence with a range of
clinical, informatics and managerial skills. The potential
for commercialisation of the Initiative's work will also be
an important part of the assessment process. The aim is to
be in a position to announce the successful applicant by
Summer 2004.