Updates | Genomics England - Part 2

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New Non-Executive Directors join Genomics England Board

Mar3

Genomics England is excited to announce the appointment of Andrew Eland, Annalisa Jenkins and Vikram Bajaj to the Board as Non-Executive Directors.

Andrew Eland, CEO and Founder of Diagonal Work

Andrew, a software engineer by trade, has spent time working with Google, DeepMind and, more recently, Diagonal Work. He originally joined Google in 2005, working predominantly on Google Maps, and was appointed as Engineering Director in 2010. He left four years later to take up another Engineering Director position,

Rare Disease Day 2021 blog: West syndrome – a rare epilepsy as seen through the eyes of a father

Feb28

My daughter was born prematurely and at around 8 months old, she seemed to regress in her development and started making strange jack-knife movements at certain times of the day. She was diagnosed at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge with a rare and severe form of epilepsy called West syndrome. West syndrome diagnosis is based around the child having very specific and irregular brainwaves, developmental regression and seizures. Luckily, our clinician was actively involved in a clinical trial for treating West syndrome.

LifeArc provides £5 million funding to increase understanding of the role of genetic risk factors in patient response to COVID-19

Feb15

Medical research charity, LifeArc, announces today that it is providing £5 million funding to support the work of the GenOMICC COVID-19 Study, led by the GenOMICC consortium in partnership with Genomics England. The study, launched in May 2020, is using genomics to investigate why some people are affected more severely by COVID-19, and increase our understanding about the disease.

GenOMICC is a global collaboration of doctors and scientists working together to understand and treat serious illnesses,

International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Vivienne Parry celebrates geneticist Barbara McClintock

Feb11

Thinking about Women in STEM this week has made me want to introduce Barbara McClintock to you. She brings together two parts of my life, my undergraduate years taking genetics and my time at Genomics England. She may not be very familiar to many of you, yet what she discovered underpins everything we do here.

She was the first and so far, only woman to have won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine unshared.

Blog: Let’s talk about the ‘G’ word

Jan22

In this blog, Chris Wigley, CEO of Genomics England, tells us in his own words why it is so important for us to talk to as many people as possible about genomics, and why we have launched our podcast, The G Word.

I’ve spent my career at the intersection of technology, ethics and human stories. Now, I lead the amazing team here at Genomics England. We’re trying to bring the benefits of genomic medicine to everyone,

The G Word: Genomics England launches new podcast

Jan18

This week, Genomics England has launched its first company podcast. ‘The G Word’ will be hosted by Chris Wigley, our CEO, who will talk to a wide variety of people about all things genomics, with the aim of making the topic more accessible and understandable to all.

He says:

Most people understand that our DNA is the blueprint that lies at the heart of our cells and bodies. Many people have done mail-order genetic tests to explore their heritage,

A vision for the future of genomic healthcare

Dec9

In September 2020, the UK Government published Genome UK, a vision for the next ten years of genomic healthcare. This National Genomic Healthcare Strategy sets out a plan to deliver the future of care in the NHS by enabling the provision of world-leading genomic healthcare to patients in the UK and across the world.

Over the next 10 years, the Government’s ambition is to create the most advanced genomic healthcare system in the world,

National Genomic Research Library grows to over 110,000 clinically linked genomes

Nov17

The National Genomic Research Library (NGRL) now contains one of the richest genomic datasets in the world for both rare disease and cancer research, following the curation and addition of all consented genomes from the 100,000 Genomes Project. The Library now holds the data of over 110,000 clinically linked genomes, from over 97,000 participants.

This latest data update to the Genomics England Research Environment, the platform to access the NGRL, is a major milestone for the 100,000 Genomes Project as well as future research.

Landmark strategy launched to cement UK’s position as global leader in genomics

Sep26

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has today heralded the launch of a landmark new strategy which will secure the UK’s future position as a global leader in genomics.

The new National Genomic Healthcare Strategy – Genome UK – will ensure the UK can offer patients the best possible predictive, preventative and personalised care by harnessing the potential of advanced genome sequencing.

The strategy sets out how the UK genomics community – from researchers through to the NHS – will come together to harness the latest advances in genetic and genomic science,

Baroness Dido Harding stepping down from Genomics England Board

Sep3

Baroness Dido Harding has decided to step down from the Board of Genomics England with immediate effect, to concentrate on her role as interim Chair of the newly formed National Institute for Health Protection, as well as her on-going role as Chair of NHS Improvement.

We’re hugely grateful to Dido for her contribution to Genomics England, for sharing her knowledge and experience during her time on the Board, and also for her direction and counsel during her time as our interim Chair.

100th birthday of pioneering British scientist Rosalind Franklin

Jul25

The Chair of Genomics England is calling on young women across the United Kingdom to follow in the footsteps of Rosalind Franklin, a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer who played a key role in the discovery of DNA, and whose centenary is being celebrated today.

Baroness Nicola Blackwood, a former Minister for Life Sciences at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), paid tribute to Franklin, whose contribution to discoveries about DNA made possible the sequencing of the human genome,

Genomics England launches next-generation research platform central to UK COVID-19 response

Jun29

British tech company Lifebit and Amazon Web Services to support a dedicated environment for researchers working on COVID-19 vaccines and treatments

Genomics England (GEL) has today launched a next-generation genomic research platform that will play a key role in the research response to COVID-19. This ground-breaking research environment will transform how genomic data is made usable for global biopharma and academic researchers. It will provide world-class patient data security,

Twenty years on from sequencing the first genome

Jun26

In this opinion piece, Chris Wigley, CEO of Genomics England, shares his reflections on the 20th anniversary of the first genome to be sequenced.

Not for a century has the world witnessed a pandemic on anything approaching the scale of COVID-19. Millions have been infected, almost half a million have died, economies have been shut down, jobs lost, schools closed, families divided, and civil liberties restricted to levels unknown outside war time.

UK leading on patient-centric precision medicine research

May27

A novel system which will allow rare disease patients and their caregivers to add additional information about themselves to research databases is being developed by Sano Genetics in collaboration with Zetta Genomics and Genomics England. The system will add an important layer of patient derived information to the groundbreaking precision medicine research being carried out through Genomics England. The information provided by individuals may be reported by participants directly, for example daily symptom tracking,

New partnership to sequence human genomes in the fight against coronavirus

May13

Genetic susceptibility to coronavirus to be tested in ground-breaking nationwide study
Genomes of thousands of patients with coronavirus will be sequenced to understand how a person’s genetic makeup could influence how they react to the virus
Genomics England partners with University of Edinburgh to lead research drive to support the search for new treatments

Find out how to register interest to take part in the GenOMICC study. Read more >

Baroness Blackwood appointed Chair of Genomics England

May1

Baroness Nicola Blackwood has been appointed Chair of Genomics England, succeeding Baroness Dido Harding, who has served as Interim Chair since November 2019.

Genomics England was established in 2013 to deliver the 100,000 Genomes Project in partnership with the NHS and helped to cement the UK’s world-leading position in genomic science. Following the successful sequencing of 100,000 whole genomes in December 2018, Baroness Blackwood will support Genomics England through its next phase of development,

Professor Sir Mark Caulfield at QMUL’s Precision Medicine Leadership Event

Apr22

On 5 March 2020, Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Chief Scientist at Genomics England, delivered the keynote talk at St Bartholomew’s Great Hall for the Precision Medicine Leadership event co-hosted by Queen Mary University London (QMUL).

The event set out to explore how collaboration can enable and advance precision medicine, showcasing new developments in the field from academia and industry. The event fostered networking opportunities between delegates who attended from more than 30 companies spanning pharma,

Genomics England’s response to COVID-19

Mar18

At Genomics England, we continue to carefully monitor the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation as it rapidly evolves. Our immediate priorities are to protect and support the health and well-being of our staff, and the professional and social communities with whom we work, whilst continuing to work with our partners at NHS England, as well as those in government, industry, medicine and academia, to accelerate genomic research and healthcare.

In response to government advice, we are working proactively to reduce the spread of the virus.

Rare Disease Day 2020 – diagnosis is just the start of another journey for patients

Feb29

Today is Rare Disease Day 2020. The 100,000 Genomes Project is coming towards an end as we have finished sequencing everyone’s genomic samples, and are working hard to get the last few reports back to the NHS. To mark and raise awareness for the occasion, we asked Dr Christine Patch, Clinical Lead for Genetic Counselling at Genomics England, to give us her perspective.

Projects such as the 100,000 Genomes Project and others are directly facilitating new genetic diagnoses for patients with rare disease.

Participants in 100,000 Genomes Project instrumental in ground-breaking advance in understanding of bowel cancer growth

Feb27

Genomic data provided by participants in the 100,000 Genomes Project has helped Cancer Research UK researchers identify how a common type of gut bacteria could contribute to bowel cancer.

The research, undertaken by a team of international researchers led by Professor Hans Clevers in the Netherlands, shows that a toxin called colibactin released by a strain of E. coli, causes unique patterns of DNA damage to the cells lining the gut.