MRC is launching its first two Centres of Research Excellence, which will develop transformative new advanced therapeutics for currently untreatable diseases.
The new Medical Research Council Centres of Research Excellence (MRC CoRE) will receive up to £50m each over 14 years.
The centres will build on the huge progress made in genomics, allowing the genetic basis of many diseases and processes to be identified. Advances in genome editing and other gene therapies have also 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
- neurodegenerative conditions like Huntington’s disease
- genetic causes of blindness
- many rare genetic diseases that affect children, including those that cause severe infant seizures
One centre, called the MRC/BHF CoRE 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 CoRE in Therapeutic Genomics, aims to make rare genetic disorders treatable by enabling the mass production of affordable cutting-edge gene therapies.
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.
Professor Patrick Chinnery, Executive Chair of MRC, said: “The MRC CoREs are a new way of funding bold and ambitious science that seeks to advance our ability to understand diseases, diagnose them at an early stage, intervene with new treatments and prevent diseases of the future. They will focus on bringing together the brightest scientists to tackle diseases of major medical importance, so that they will really change the landscape and improve the health of the nation.
“I am excited to see how the first two centres announced today will transform approaches in advanced therapeutics. We have seen the first green shoots of how advanced gene therapies could transform medicine, such as the mRNA Covid vaccines, or the recent announcement of the NHS approving a gene-editing therapy that could cure blood disorder thalassaemia.
“These two CoREs aim to bring these burgeoning technologies to mass fruition to treat many devastating diseases which will also lead to economic growth.”