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The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is now a worldleader in genomics research
Collaboration and the sharing of data are fundamental tenets of the Institute , with collaborators in the neighbouring European Bioinformatics Institute ( EBI ) and across the globe . Open-access databases are freely available for other scientists to use , while Wellcome Genome Campus Connecting Science enables people to explore genomic science .
The Sanger Institute is known for its large-scale projects and data production , and the campus has the largest sequencing facility in Europe , which was officially opened by the Prime Minister in November 2016 . This scale , alongside collaboration with clinicians and researchers in other fields enables projects such as the £ 20 million Grand Challenge project studying the genomes of 5,000 cancer patients from five continents to better understand what causes cancer , and the international Human Cell Atlas initiative , which aims to identify and map every cell in the body to understand health and disease .
Innovation is a key component of the Genome Campus ’ success , and companies such as Congenica , and Microbiotica were formed out of scientific breakthroughs at the Sanger Institute . These and other genomics companies are housed in the
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© Sanger Institute : Genome Research Ltd .
new campus Biodata Innovation Centre ( or BIC ).
The campus also houses the centralised sequencing facility for Genomics England . This aims to sequence 100,000 genomes from NHS patients and their families and will help personalise medical treatment .
Over 2,000 people now work at the Genome Campus , and the proximity of researchers , innovators and industrial collaborators ensures an excellent flow of information and ideas .
More information is available about the Wellcome Genome Campus at www . wellcomegenomecampus . org and the Sanger Institute at www . sanger . ac . uk
Championing open data The numbers on screen are always changing : expanding bubbles pop up across a map of the world . The screen is one of many on the Wellcome Genome Campus showing how many users are accessing the data services of the European Bioinformatics Institute ( EMBL-EBI ), right now .
EMBL-EBI has a mission to make scientific data readily accessible to researchers working in biomedicine , pharmaceuticals , biodiversity , ecology , agri-food and many other disciplines – in both corporate and academic settings . Based on the Genome Campus in the Cambridge UK biocluster , EMBL-EBI is at the centre of one of the highest concentrations of genomics and big-data expertise in the world .
The institute manages public life-science data on a very large scale , making it freely available to researchers throughout the
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world . With data centres set to handle over 100 petabytes ( 100 million gigabytes ) of data , it has become a cornerstone of digital biology , enabling and enriching international scientific collaboration . The data held at EMBL-EBI would be impossible to replicate by most private or public organisations .
EMBL-EBI works with diverse scientific communities and its Industry Programme ensures that its infrastructure , tools and training are keeping pace with the rapidly changing research environment . The institute is a champion for open data in the life sciences , which can reduce the length of clinical trials , help people better understand the drivers of disease and expose unexpected research avenues .
In any day-to-day operation , it can be easy to lose track of the big picture . When that happens , one glance at the screens around campus is enough to remind you just how fast the appetite for open data is growing in the life sciences . That ’ s good for discovery , good for companies and , ultimately , good for society .
Connecting Science The research taking place on campus is cutting-edge and has broad implications for everyone . Wellcome Genome Campus
The Sanger Institute was built to house the Human Genome Project
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© Sanger Institute : Genome Research Ltd . |