The 100,000 Genomes Project is a three year, national project aiming to collect and decode 100,000 human genomes from NHS patients by 2017.
The human genome is the complete set of genetic information for humans. In 2003 the Human Genome Project, an international research programme, mapped the human genome. The 100,000 Genomes Project takes this one step further by focusing on the genes of patients with a rare disease and patients with cancer. Many types of cancer could be helped if it was known which gene changes were important; and at least 80 percent of rare diseases are genomic with half of new cases found in children.
Clearly this project could change the future of healthcare in many ways. It has the potential to improve the prediction and prevention of disease and it could also help point the way to new treatments.
In December 2014 it was announced that in wave 1, eleven genomic medicine centres (GMC) across the country would lead the way in delivering the project. A further wave of GMCs will be established so that there is comprehensive coverage across the NHS in England.
SWLP may have a role to play in this world-leading genomics project. Collaborating with St George’s University Hospitals Genetics Department, SWLP could become part of one of the GMCs which would involve recruiting suitable patients and their relatives to the programme, collecting blood and tumour samples and for extracting the DNA from these samples.
To find out more about genomics and the 100k Genomes Project, visit the Genomics England website.
