Formation | 5 July 2013 |
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Headquarters | One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, England [1] |
Parent organization | Department of Health and Social Care |
Website | www |
Genomics England is a company set up and owned by the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Care to run the 100,000 Genomes Project. [2] The project aimed in 2014 to sequence 100,000 genomes from NHS patients with a rare disease and their families, and patients with cancer. An infectious disease strand is being led by Public Health England. [3] [4] [5]
In the summer of 2019, Chris Wigley was appointed CEO of Genomics England, starting in October 2019. [6] Wigley is a former McKinsey executive known for applying machine learning and artificial intelligence technology. [7]
Genomics England was formally established as a company on 17 April 2013 [8] and was formally launched on 5 July 2013 as part of the celebrations for the 65th Birthday of the UK's National Health Service [9] In August 2014, the Wellcome Trust announced that it was investing £27 million in a genome-sequencing hub for Genomics England, allowing the company to become part of the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, home to the Sanger Institute. On the same date, Prime Minister David Cameron unveiled a new partnership between Genomics England and the sequencing firm Illumina. Illumina’s services for whole genome sequencing were secured in a deal worth around £78 million. [10]
The UK Government also committed £250 million to genomics in the 2015 Spending Review, which ensures the continued role of Genomics England to deliver the project, beyond the life of the project and up to 2021. [11]
On March 26, 2015, AstraZeneca announced that it joined a public-private consortium with Genomics England to accelerate the development of new diagnostics and treatments arising from the 100,000 Genomes Project. [12]
In October 2018, the U.K.'s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, announced that the program had been expanded with a new goal of sequencing five million genomes within five years. He also announced that starting in 2019, the NHS will offer whole genome sequencing (WGS) to all children suspected of having a rare genetic disease or with cancer. [13]
In July 2019, Genomics England announced Data Release 7, which included the 100,000th whole genome available to researchers. [14]
In June 2020, Genomics England announced a partnership with UK-based biotechnology company Lifebit to deploy a genomic research platform aimed at utilizing the genomic data generated through the 100,000 Genomes Project. [15]
In 2021 it developed a vision regarding newborn screening, initiating a research study called Generation Study looking for 200 rare conditions in parallel to the standard NHS newborn screen for 9 rare, serious and treatable health conditions. [16]
The Board of Genomics England includes a number of notable scientists: [17]
Baroness Nicola Blackwood of North Oxford became Chair of Genomics England in May 2020. [19]
Genomics England was established in July 2013 as a company fully owned by the UK Department of Health. [20] [21] The company was launched by Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health on 5 July, in an announcement timed to coincide with the 65th birthday of the NHS. [21]
A 2019 review identified the 100,000 Genomes Project as an exemplar in involving the public in genomic research. [22] In addition to the delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project, it is hoped that Genomics England will also mark the beginnings of a UK genomics industry and the start of a personalised medicine service for the NHS. [20]
Following the pilot studies for the 100,000 Genomes Project, NHS England ran a tender to appoint NHS Genomic Medicine Centres with responsibility for recruiting suitable patients, gaining their consent to participate in the project and taking samples for whole genome sequencing by Illumina (company). [23] The successful bidders designated as NHS Genomic Medicine Centres are:[ citation needed ]
In December 2015, two new NHS Genomic Medicine Centres were announced by NHS England: [24]
There are now 13 designated NHS Genomic Medicine Centres (GMCs) across the country.
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a British public sector healthcare provider located in Cambridge, England. It was established on 4 November 1992 as Addenbrooke's National Health Service Trust, and authorised as an NHS foundation trust under its current name on 1 July 2004.
Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust runs Liverpool Women's Hospital, a major obstetrics, gynaecology and neonatology research hospital in Liverpool, England. It is one of several specialist hospitals located within the Liverpool City Region; alongside Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, the Walton Centre, Mersey Regional Burns and Plastic Surgery Unit, and Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.
The University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust provides adult district general hospital services for Birmingham as well as specialist treatments for the West Midlands.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust is an NHS trust based in London, England. It is one of the largest NHS trusts in England and together with Imperial College London forms an academic health science centre.
Personal genomics or consumer genetics is the branch of genomics concerned with the sequencing, analysis and interpretation of the genome of an individual. The genotyping stage employs different techniques, including single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis chips, or partial or full genome sequencing. Once the genotypes are known, the individual's variations can be compared with the published literature to determine likelihood of trait expression, ancestry inference and disease risk.
UCLPartners is an academic health science centre located in London, England. It is the largest academic health science centre in the world, treats more than 1.5 million patients each year, has a combined annual turnover of around £2 billion and includes around 3,500 scientists, senior researchers and consultants.
Whole genome sequencing (WGS) is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's chromosomal DNA as well as DNA contained in the mitochondria and, for plants, in the chloroplast.
Central Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, was a large NHS foundation trust in Manchester, England, that was founded in 2009 and merged with University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust in 2017 to form the current Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Dame Susan Lesley Hill has been the Chief Scientific Officer for England since October 2002.
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the Shelford Group of University Teaching Hospitals and an NHS Foundation Trust. It provides acute medical services in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, at Royal Victoria Infirmary and Freeman Hospital, the Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle Dental Hospital, Newcastle Fertility Centre and the Northern Genetics Service. The Great North Children's Hospital also is part of the trust and is located linked with RVI on the same site.
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an English teaching hospital and part of the Shelford Group. It is one of the UK's largest teaching hospitals and one of the largest hospitals in Europe. The trust is made up of four hospitals – the John Radcliffe Hospital, the Churchill Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, all located in Oxford, and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury, north Oxfordshire.
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust is an NHS Foundation Trust that operates Great Ormond Street Hospital. It is closely associated with University College London (UCL) and in partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health, which it is located adjacent to, is the largest centre for research and postgraduate teaching in children’s health in Europe. It is part of both the Great Ormond Street Hospital/UCL Institute of Child Health Biomedical Research Centre and the UCL Partners academic health science centre.
The Christie, formerly known as Christie Hospital and The Christie Hospital and Holt Radium Institute, is a specialist National Health Service oncology hospital in Manchester, England. It is one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. It is managed by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, which as of 2024 had a turnover of £472 million and around 3,500 staff, and its work is also supported by The Christie Charity.
The 100,000 Genomes Project is a now-completed UK Government project managed by Genomics England that is sequencing whole genomes from National Health Service patients. The project is focusing on rare diseases, some common types of cancer, and infectious diseases. Participants give consent for their genome data to be linked to information about their medical condition and health records. The medical and genomic data is shared with researchers to improve knowledge of the causes, treatment, and care of diseases. The project has received over £300 million from public and private investment.
Euan Angus Ashley is a Scottish physician, scientist, author, and founder based at Stanford University in California where he is Associate Dean in the School of Medicine and holds the Roger and Joelle Burnell Chair of Genomics and Precision Health. He is known for helping establish the field of medical genomics.
Sharon Jayne Peacock is a British microbiologist who is Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and Master of Churchill College, Cambridge.
The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) is an international consortium that is developing standards for responsibly collecting, storing, analyzing, and sharing genomic data in order to enable an "internet of genomics". GA4GH was founded in 2013.
Christine Patch is a nurse and genetic counsellor. She is a Principal Staff Scientist in Genomic Counselling in the Society and Ethics Research group, part of Wellcome Connecting Science, based on the Wellcome Genome Campus. She is also the Clinical Lead for Genetic Counselling at Genomics England, and a former President of the European Society of Human Genetics.
The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium was a group of academic institutions and public health agencies in the United Kingdom created in April 2020 to collect, sequence and analyse genomes of SARS-CoV-2 at scale, as part of COVID-19 pandemic response.
Dame Lyn Susan Chitty is a British physician and Professor of Genetics and Fetal Medicine at University College London. She is the deputy director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre. She is the 2022 president of the International Society for Prenatal Diagnosis. Her research considers non-invasive prenatal diagnostics. She was made a Dame in the 2022 New Year Honours.