UK: MRC launches two £50m centres for cutting-edge gene therapies

"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 £50 million 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."

More at https://www.ukri.org/news/mrc-launches-two-50m-centres-for-cutting-edge-gene-therapies/