Olympic lab leaves life sciences legacy

The London 2012 anti-doping facilities, operated by King’s College London, will be developed after the Olympic and Paralympic Games into a world-class resource that could help revolutionise healthcare.

The MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre will use the cutting-edge facilities developed for London 2012 to help develop better and more targeted treatment for patients. The first of its kind in the world, the centre will enable researchers to explore the characteristics of disease in order to develop new drugs and treatments for patients.

The new centre will be funded over five years by an investment of £5 million each from the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will build on and develop the state-of-the-art equipment and expertise of the London 2012 anti-doping facilities provided by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and operated by King’s.

A phenome describes a person’s chemistry - all the molecules in their blood, urine or tissues - that are the result of their genetics and their lifestyle. This mixture of molecules is changing all the time and is influenced by factors such as diet, environment and even stress levels. It is linked to how a person responds to disease or to treatments such as drugs.

Researchers at the centre will investigate the phenome patterns of patients and volunteers by analysing samples - usually blood or urine - very rapidly and on an unprecedented scale. This will help them to discover new ‘biomarkers’ to explain why one individual or population may be more susceptible to a disease than another. This knowledge will aid scientists in finding new, safer and more targeted treatments. Phenome analysis has already been used to ‘tailor’ cancer treatment to suit individual patients by, for example, minimising the toxicity and maximising the efficiency of drug treatments for colon cancer.

With a proven track record in world-leading analytical techniques, King’s researchers at the centre will specifically focus on targeted metabolite analysis by mass spectrometry. By taking advantage of recent advances in molecular research tools, sensor technologies, ‘omics’ platforms and bioinformatics, the King’s team will provide a deeper understanding of the phenome.

The MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre will enable the UK to make its world-class phenotyping technology and expertise available to both researchers and the life sciences industry to accelerate the translation of medical discoveries into better healthcare. The centre will be led by a collaboration of academic partners, led by Imperial College London, and the suppliers of nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry equipment (Bruker and Waters Corporation).

British Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that the centre will take advantage of the opportunities that lie in combining genetic data with the results of medical tests on tissues and blood, allowing us to understand the characteristics of diseases and how they are linked to our genes and environment.

Chris Mottershead, Vice Principal for Research and Innovation at King’s College London, said: “Understanding how our environment influences health and causes disease is hugely important, and we are delighted to play an integral role in the development of the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre, which will work closely with our NIHR Biomedical Research Centres as they develop exciting new diagnostics and therapies.

“The new centre will utilise and build on the advanced analytical technology, knowledge and skills we have brought to the anti-doping testing laboratory for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. We are pleased to continue to play a part in taking forward and building on this enduring legacy.”