LONDON – U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans Wednesday to transform the London Olympic anti-doping facility into a $16 million center that studies how genes are transformed by lifestyle.
The phenome center in Harlow, northeast of London, will allow scientists to study how people respond to drugs and allow them to investigate the effects of diet, the environment and stress on the molecular make-up of individuals to develop new treatments. Cameron will announce the project, the first of its kind in the world, at a gathering of health professionals in London today.
“This will take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities that lie in combining genetic data with the results of medical tests on tissues and blood,” Cameron will say, according to remarks released by his office. “It will produce new forms of drugs and it will lead the world in the development of precision medicine.”
Facilities and equipment for the center are being provided by GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), to which Bruker Corp. and Waters Corp. will also contribute.
GSK operates its North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park, N.C.
