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14 | advancing Knowledge
NEW FUNDING
CHANGING CHANNELS THE NEXT 999 A FLOURISHING FIELD
A £6.5 million Strategic Award to the
OXION network will support
interdisciplinary research on ion
channels and their role in disease.
Ion channels (above), pores that control
the flow of ions through cell membranes,
play important roles in many physiological
processes. They have also been
implicated in numerous medical
conditions – there are more than 60 ion
channels in which mutations lead to
human diseases. Ion channels are also
the targets of many drugs.
OXION, a research and training network
encompassing 25 groups mainly but not
exclusively based in Oxford, has developed
an interdisciplinary approach to ion
channels. Led by Professor Frances
Ashcroft and Professor Nick Rawlins, its
work ranges from molecular and cellular
approaches to in vivo physiology and
behaviour studies, and aims to generate
a better understanding of ion channel
function in health and disease.
The £6.5m award will provide funds for
core infrastructure and support additional
collaborations among members of the
network. It also includes a training
element, enabling researchers to develop
a range of multidisciplinary skills.
Finally, it will also help to strengthen links
between basic and clinical research, and
promote the translation of knowledge into
new diagnostics and therapies.
The 1000 Genomes Project will shed
light on rare human genetic variation.
While initiatives such as the Wellcome
Trust Case Control Consortium have done
much to identify common genetic variations
increasing disease risks, it is becoming
clear that rare variants are also important:
although not widely distributed, collectively
they account for a significant fraction of
disease risk.
To understand rare variation better, detailed
genome comparisons are needed over a
much larger number of individuals. This is
the goal of the 1000 Genomes Project, an
international collaboration being led by
Richard Durbin at the Wellcome Trust
Sanger Institute.
With partners in the USA, China and
Germany, the US$50 million (£34m) 1000
Genomes Project will analyse the genomes
of at least 1000 individuals from different
populations around the world, generating
a staggering 6 trillion base pairs of
sequence information. It will examine
variation affecting single nucleotides as
well as larger changes such as deletions
or rearrangements.
Currently, the capacity to generate human
genome sequence information exceeds
the ability to understand what the data
actually mean. By clarifying the extent and
nature of rare variation, the 1000 Genomes
Project will add significant additional
meaning to the deluge of sequence data.
Two new awards will help to establish
centres of excellence in medical
humanities.
Health is experienced on a profoundly
personal level. Individual perceptions of
health are often intimately entwined with
social and cultural factors, as well as
personal experience.
In recognition of the importance of this
area, the Wellcome Trust has made two
major awards, through its medical
humanities programme, to establish
centres of excellence at King’s College
London and the University of Durham.
At King’s, which will receive £2 million,
Brian Hurwitz and colleagues will study
‘The Boundaries of Illness’ – personal
and cultural representations of health
and illness and the boundaries between
them.
Martyn Evans and colleagues at the
University of Durham, awarded £1.8m,
will examine ‘Medicine and Human
Flourishing’ – exploring the human side
of medicine, in particular the relationship
of health and medicine to wider notions
of wellbeing.
Medical humanities research provides an
opportunity to reflect upon people’s
experience medical practice, illness and
health – insights that may help to shape
the future delivery of medical care.