RE: DEVOTE24 Apr 2023 20:14
20March2023
Greater Manchester secures multi-million investment to improve the diagnosis and treatment of disease to save more lives
Greater Manchester health and care partners, in collaboration with academia and industry, today (16 March 2023) announce the launch of a new multi-million pound health innovation accelerator focused on rapidly improving the diagnosis and treatment of disease across the 2.8m GM population.
Government is investing £100 million to accelerate the growth of three high-potential innovation clusters, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, and the West Midlands. This investment will ensure they become major, globally competitive, centres for research and innovation.
As part of a two-year programme, Greater Manchester will launch innovative projects in sectors where it has existing research strengths, including advanced materials, artificial intelligence (AI), diagnostics, and net zero.
The health innovation accelerator will focus on tackling some of the most challenging disease areas through early diagnosis using novel approaches and holistic treatment aligned to people’s specific needs. It is hoped this will help to save more lives and improve health outcomes for people at high risk or living in the most disadvantaged communities.
The health accelerator will focus on enhanced diagnostics and genomics, delivered through a partnership between Health Innovation Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, and the University of Manchester.
Further significant investment has also been leveraged through partnerships with businesses in life sciences, digital and creative industries, which is a testament to the strength of Greater Manchester’s partnerships with industry.
Bill Newman, Professor of Translational Genomic Medicine at UoM, Consultant in Genomic Medicine at MFT, and a researcher with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester BRC, said: “This is a great opportunity to enhance GM’s status as a world leader in creating genetic tests that can give rapid results in minutes. We expect that the DEVOTE projects will lead to the adoption of new tests by the NHS to make drug prescription safer and more effective. This will be good for patients and good for GM by creating jobs and a centre for investment in this cutting-edge science.”