The £10 million MRC-NIHR Phenome centre will be a contribution to the legacy left behind after the Games end in September. It will focus on research into phenotypes such as skin colour, eye colour, height and weight, combining genetic data with medical test results from blood and tissue to better understand the relationship between genetic and environmental causes of diseases such as diabetes.
Professor Sir John Savill, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council has called this innovative project “a phenomenal legacy from the Games”.
Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies expects that the centre will “transform our understanding of people’s physical characteristics and disease, and enable us to pull through these discoveries into real benefits for patients”. She asserts that it will “revolutionise the way in which we treat a wide range of diseases”.
The Medical Research Council and the Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research will fund the extension to the London 2012 centre for the next five years after the planned opening in January 2013.
