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A centre dedicated to using a person’s own genes to cure their illness will soon be set up at the Australian National University.
ANU has received $7.3 million from Australian Capital Territory Health to set up Canberra Clinical Genomics. This centre will work to cure patients with complex diseases by sequencing their genome and finding treatments personalised to their condition.
Professor Matthew Cook is the new centre’s director, from ANU Medical School and the John Curtin School of Medical Research. He promised the facility’s work would make a real difference to patients’ lives.
“This enables doctors and researchers to collaborate to implement what is truly 21st-century medicine,” Cook said. “It will provide a pathway for true translation of discoveries to make a meaningful difference to the management of patients.”
The new centre will also put research done by ANU’s Centre for Personalised Immunology, which studies personalising cures of immune disorders, into action.
“We are bringing the era of precision medicine to patients in the ACT for the first time ,” said professor Carola Vinuesa, co-director of the Centre for Personalised Immunology. “Patients will be diagnosed according to their genetic makeup and we will tailor a therapy to the patient’s individual genetic defect.”
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