NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The University of Manchester today said that it has been awarded £24 million ($38.5 million), including funding for omics-directed projects, from the UK government.
The University of Manchester is getting about £13 million to create a Clinical Proteomics Centre, where researchers will aim to differentiate healthy patients from those with disease in order to provide treatment at an earlier disease stage and gain insight into patient response to specific drugs. The university noted research could be directed at psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer.
The university is also receiving £5 million to create the Manchester Single Cell Research Centre, where scientists will be able to characterize circulating tumor cells and specific stem cells that can help regenerate damaged tissues, such as muscle, joints, skin, and blood vessels.
Lastly, a £6 million grant will set up a PET/MR scanning facility in Manchester in order to conduct research into the molecular processes of the brain that cause dementia. The funding is being provided as part of the UK Dementia Platform. The University of Manchester facility, which will be part of a network of such centers, will manage projects focused on monitoring physical activity, it said.
The funding is part of a total of £230 million being invested by the UK government in partnership with organizations, such as Arthritis Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and Cancer Research UK, to develop and/or use technologies for identifying diseases including cancer and dementia. Included in the funding is £24 million announced during the summer from the Medical Research Council to Genomics England in support of the 100,000 Genomes Project.