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Sphere 33
Better, safer and more personalised treatments
The Centre was launched by Mr li Ka-shing and british prime
Minister, Mr david Cameron. at the launch ceremony,
Mr li said, “What will happen here is more than the promise
of harnessing the power of a data-intensive revolution to
improve health care. The work of this Centre will identify
innovative ways to increase access to health care while lessening
the burden of cost. it will free up resources for much needed
investments in educational opportunities and will lead to new
and deeper competencies that are pragmatic, precise solutions
to sustain hope and stability today and lead to even greater
discoveries tomorrow.”
Mr david Cameron shares his vision, and spoke about
how he felt when he discovered his late son had a rare form
of epilepsy. as he visited the laboratory of the Centre, he met
a researcher who was running genetic data – dna tests –
against a very unknown disease, a syndrome called ohtahara
Syndrome, which his son ivan suffered from and eventually
died of in 2009.
“
i will never forget when we were first told of the diagnosis
of a desperately ill and disabled child. Then when you want
to know more about it, there’s very little that we know. it’s
one of the many parts of medical science where we have huge
breakthroughs still to make,” said Mr Cameron. “it will be good
to say there is, right here in oxford, a vital piece of scientific
work going on to try and link dna information with this
under-researched syndrome.”
Mr Cameron added, “i think what happens today (at the
ceremony) really matters. it is an enormous investment that
Mr li is making to this Centre, which has the potential to
revolutionise medical research and healthcare in this country
and beyond. This will help to further develop a strong and
competitive science and research base in this country which
is vital for the uK to compete and thrive in the global race.”
Target Discovery Institute and Big Data Institute
together form the Li Ka Shing Centre for Health
Information and Discovery, which has been boosted
by the GBP20m gift from the Li Ka Shing Foundation,
in particular through funding new research positions.
The GBP10m announced from Higher Education Funding
Council for England through the second round of its
Research Partnership Investment Fund (RPIF) is for the
new Big Data Institute building. The Target Discovery
Institute received GBP10m in the first RPIF round.
These two related areas of activity harness
novel 21st-century opportunities in healthcare and
represent the first examples of these types of research
endeavours in academia anywhere in the world.
Research in the Li Ka Shing Centre for Health
Information and Discovery will cover a number of
strands. These will include:
•
Mining data from electronic patient records as they
become increasingly available;
•
Research in genomic medicine, now that the cost and
speed of sequencing patients’ entire DNA have come
down so far to make this realistic in the clinic;
•
The use of genomics and other approaches in disease
surveillance, such as mapping the emergence of drug
resistance in malaria parasites or tracking the spread of
infections in hospitals; and
•
High-throughput and automated approaches that can
speed the early stages of drug discovery, by identifying
and verifying better targets for drug development
in important diseases such as cancer, diabetes,
psychiatric conditions and inflammatory diseases
where society needs new and better treatments.
Some facts
Upon completion,
the Centre will house
600
scientists.
