Genomics

Programme Brief

Genomics and genetics will impact patients with certain cancers or rare diseases. In Wessex there are around 16,500 new cases of cancer per year, with around 8000 deaths, and direct costs to the NHS of around £290 million.Rare diseases are rare, but there are lots of them. Combined, approximately 6000 recognised rare diseases affect 7% of the population – more than cancer...

Genomics and genetics will impact patients with certain cancers or rare diseases. In Wessex there are around 16,500 new cases of cancer per year, with around 8000 deaths, and direct costs to the NHS of around £290 million.

Rare diseases are rare, but there are lots of them. Combined, approximately 6000 recognised rare diseases affect 7% of the population – more than cancer and HIV together. In Wessex this means around 120,000 people are affected.

There is clearly huge potential in this high-tech and innovative field, and even modest innovations could impact a significant number of patients.

As below, we are focused on 3 projects:

The 100,000 Genomes Project
Establishing the skills and expertise to find clinically relevant changes to patients genes using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) (The Exome Project)
Ensuring Wessex retains a centre of excellence by hosting a Genomics Central Laboratory Hub

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Exome Sequencing project

An individual’s whole genome is a combination of around 3,000,000,000 letters (A,T,C and Gs). The... Find out more >

The 100,000 Genomes project

This project will sequence 100,000 whole genomes from about 70,000 NHS patients with either certa... Find out more >

Wessex NHS Genomic Medicine Centre: how sequencing saved Ilona's life

Wessex NHS Genomic Medicine Centre patient Ilona and her clinicians tell us about how sequencing ... Find out more >

The 100k Genomes Project in Wessex - Progress and integration into care

The 100,000 Genomes Project involved collecting and decoding (sequencing) complete sets of people... Find out more >

Meet the team

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Featured video

Wessex Genomic Medicine Centre (GMC): Ilona's story

Wessex Genomic Medicine Centre (GMC): Jenny’s story

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Resources

Wessex AHSN Genomics programme - flashcard 2017-18

Publications

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