University launches major initiative to study complex diseases

The University of Birmingham is launching a major new initiative that will exploit state of the art technologies and high performance computing to unravel mechanisms of complex diseases, discover new diagnostic markers, and ultimately improve patient treatment and care. The new £1 million investment into the "Systems Science for Health" initiative will weld together the University's existing excellence in three vibrant research areas. Researchers in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics as well as biomathematicians and computer scientists will work alongside clinicians to improve our understanding and treatment of blood cancers and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatic disorders. The funding will be used to support ten new appointments across the University. This will provide the critical density of research expertise to address key unanswered questions in the biomedical sciences. Dr Mark Viant, from the College of Life and Environmental Sciences explains: "Traditional methods of studying diseases like cancer measure very few of the myriad of molecular changes that occur in a patient. Approaches such as transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics measure thousands of molecular changes and so provide a much more complete picture of what is occurring inside the patient.