People
Personalised and stratified medicine
Our Personalised and stratified medicine theme seeks to radically improve identification of patients who will respond to specific treatments. Equally importantly we seek to identify patients who will not respond to treatments. This will ensure patients are given the most appropriate treatments and not therapies which might be ineffective and harmful. We are evaluating medical tests that divide patients with the same medical condition into secondary groups. These tests often examine the patients’ genetic makeup. From this information the tests can help to predict how the different groups of patients will respond to particular treatments.
At the core of this theme is our ability to connect industry to leading experts who have access to large well characterised cohorts of patients. This includes coordinated cancer biobanks, NovoPath – The Newcastle MRC Node and NIHR BioResource Centre Newcastle. We collaborate with academics and the life science industry to progress their discoveries into translational research through funds including the Medical Research Council Confidence in Concept and Proximity to Discovery programmes which are held at Newcastle University.
This theme is led by Nick Reynolds, Professor of Dermatology at Newcastle University and NIHR senior investigator. Nick is also Skin and Oral Disease Deputy Theme Lead at the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre and holds a leadership role within Diagnostics North East, enhancing the Newcastle MIC’s connectivity across the region.
Our stratified medicine theme builds on the internationally recognised strengths of the North East in chronic inflammatory diseases, cancer, acute medicine and rare diseases. Other projects within this theme include tests for prostate cancer, familial hypercholesterolaemia and leukaemia.
