The government is set to partner with Oxford Nanopore, which uses technology to rapidly diagnose a range of cancers, along with rare and infectious diseases
The UK will create the world’s first real-time surveillance system to monitor the threat of future pandemics, prevent disease, and protect the public.
Plans have been announced to form a new partnership between the government, Genomics England, UK Biobank, NHS England, and Oxford Nanopore – a UK-headquartered, world-leading life sciences company.
Oxford Nanopore uses long read sequencing technology to analyse genes and pathogens to rapidly diagnose a range of cancers, along with rare and infectious diseases. The technology can sequence long strands of DNA or RNA in one go, without breaking it up into smaller fragments.
In infectious diseases, Oxford Nanopore’s technology will help to create an early warning system for future pandemics and potential biological threats, both preventing disease and protecting the public.
It will be used in the expansion of NHS England’s Respiratory Metagenomics programme, being led by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT). It uses samples from patients with severe respiratory infections and rapid genetic testing to match those patients with the right treatments within 6 hours.
This novel and world-leading application, developed in partnership with the NHS, will allow potential outbreaks of bacterial or viral diseases to be monitored alongside antimicrobial resistance across the country.
Following an initial successful pilot at St Thomas’ Hospital, the technology will now be rolled out from 10 to up to 30 NHS sites to address the current time lag between new pathogens emerging in the UK and action being taken to both treat affected patients and to prevent their spread, which will benefit people everywhere.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:
Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said:
Professor Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor at UK Health Security Agency, said:
Oxford Nanopore CEO Gordon Sanghera said:
Professor Ian Abbs, chief executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said:
As part of the expansion to the metagenomics programme, the data gathered using Oxford Nanopore’s technology will be provided to the UK Health and Security Agency, allowing quicker detection and action on emerging infectious diseases to be taken.
The collaboration between the government and Oxford Nanopore - which will also join up Genomics England and UK Biobank with NHS England - is another key vote of confidence in the UK’s life sciences sector, which will help kickstart economic growth and support the 10-Year Health Plan’s ambition to shift the health service from analogue to digital and from sickness to prevention, helping keep patients out of hospital.
Genomics England will work strategically with Oxford Nanopore to further insights from the data they hold, including on cancer and rare diseases, to enable future breakthroughs in identifying genomic mutations that may be treatable and preventing these devastating conditions. UK Biobank will also continue to work with Oxford Nanopore and the government to improve the insights from their data and translate these into impact for NHS patients.
Along with the vast benefits to patients, this work will drive economic growth, supporting the expansion of one of our most promising life sciences companies.
This partnership comes hot on the heels of the Budget, where the government announced investment of £40m over 5 years in a Proof of Concept Fund for spinouts, companies formed based on academic research generated within and owned by a university.
This will build on the excellent example set by Oxford Nanopore, one of the UK’s most successful spinout companies, having been founded at Oxford University in 2005. This fund could help to unleash a raft of innovative new spinouts like Oxford Nanopore, helping to drive job creation and economic growth.