SelectScience Attends Official Opening of the New MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre

SelectScience was recently invited to attend the official opening of the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre in London, UK. Taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the legacy of the 2012 Olympics, the new MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre will deliver broad access to world-class capability in metabolic phenotyping. The center aims to harmonize international analytical procedures, develop next generation technologies and provide exceptional training to scientists around the world.

As highlighted in the opening speech of the launch, by the Rt. Hon David Willetts MP, the MRC-NIHR Phenome Centre will help put Britain at the forefront of metabolic phenotyping and will make large datasets produced at the centre accessible to researchers around the world.

The SelectScience Editors met with Prof. Jeremy Nicholson, lead Principle Investigator at the Phenome Centre, to find out more about its establishment, the available technology and the benefits it will bring to the translational medicine community. Watch the video interviews with Prof. Jeremy Nicholson.

Also attending the opening day were several scientists who have already had proposals accepted for access to the Phenome Center. SelectScience interviewed some of these leading scientists to find out more about some of the pioneering studies that will be conducted at the Phenome Center. These pilot projects will be conducted by:

• Prof. Nilesh Samani (Leicester) - Metabolic phenotyping of samples from the GRAPHIC study to investigate blood pressure
• Professor Jaspal Kooner (Imperial) - Phenotyping of samples for the LOLIPOP study to investigate diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Asian populations.
• Dr Daniel Martin (UCL) - Xtreme Everest project investigating hypoxia.

Prof. Frank J. Kelly, Professor of Environmental Health and Director of Analytical & Environmental Sciences at Kings College London, told SelectScience how the Phenome Center will enable the advancement of research into environmental impacts on disease. Prof. Paul Elliott, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Imperial College London, also discussed how the large-scale epidemiological studies that will be conducted at the new Centre will enable epidemiologists to investigate the intermediate pathways that lead to disease.

SelectScience learned how NMR and mass spectrometry will be at the forefront of many of these research projects. Prof. Jeremy Nicholson explained how both Waters Corporation and Bruker BioSpin GmbH have been fundamental to the establishment of the Phenome Center and will continue to play a key role in its success.