The Government has announced that BIVDA member Oxford Nanopore will use their breakthrough genetic sequencing tech to analyse 50,000 samples from UK Biobank, to create a world-first ‘epigenetic map’.
This will help to get towards the root causes of diseases like cancer, dementia and heart disease, which could lead to breakthroughs in new diagnoses and treatments.
This new resource for medical researchers will be created thanks to the Government’s new strategic partnership with Oxford Nanopore Technologies, UK Biobank, NHS England and Genomics England.
This work – made possible thanks to a recently announced new partnership with government – will deliver the world’s first comprehensive dataset of epigenetic modification in the human genome; a potentially game-changing resource for health researchers worldwide.
Epigenetics is the emerging study of how inheritable traits – such as the risk of developing a certain disease – can emerge and change without actual changes in our DNA code, but rather as a result of modifications that change how our genes are expressed. These modifications can arise randomly, but also in response to environmental factors like smoking or UV exposure.
Recent studies have shown that epigenetics can play a major role in uncovering cancer’s underlying causes, enabling more targeted treatments and improved patient care by addressing the non-inherited factors driving tumour progression and resistance.
