A £210m project to develop new ways of providing early diagnosis for diseases like cancer and dementia has been announced in the North East.
The Early Diagnostics Institute aims to find new ways of detecting diseases associated with ageing before they become irreversible and is aiming to switch the key health research away from the ‘golden triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London.
Significant Government backing would be needed to make the project a reality, but it is hoped the research could ultimately bring significant financial benefits to the NHS by selling new treatments around the world.
The scheme would also create 320 highly-skilled and well-paying jobs, with the Institute likely to be set up at Newcastle’s Helix science and business park and the National Horizons Centre in Darlington, part of Teesside University.
The project is the brainchild of Will Dracup, who has founded and worked for a number of life sciences companies in the North East, as well as being a visiting professor at Newcastle and Sunderland universities.
He is working with health trusts and universities in the region, and is hoping to get Government backing from funds dedicated to the levelling up agenda, as well as broader scientific funding pots.
Mr Dracup said: “I am convinced EDI can make a massive difference to healthcare, not just in the UK, but worldwide.
“Our region is home to many of the country’s leading medical research specialists and doctors and with this pool of expertise and talent on our doorstep it is fitting that EDI aims to become a jewel in the crown of the North East.”
He added: “This fits very much with the levelling up agenda. This sort of research normally happens in Oxford and Cambridge and London, and that means those areas see the benefit first.
“We’re going to do it first in the North East and have the trials here so get a more immediate benefit from it.”
EDI has won initial funding of £50,000 from the North East LEP to develop its plans. It will then apply for grants from the Goverment’s Aria, Grand Challenge and levelling up funds.
The project - which has received a positive initial reaction from senior figures at the Department of Health and Social Care - builds on the region’s well established reputation in the life sciences sector, which was demonstrated this week with a £110m takeover deal for South Tyneside firm Immunodiagnotic Systems.
The North East LEP has made life sciences one of four areas on which it hopes to bring well-paying jobs to the region. Andrew Moffat, chair of the LEP’s investment board said the Institute could be “an important addition to the existing world-class facilities on offer in the North East and help drive further investment in the region’s health and life sciences sector.”
Sir John Burn, professor of clinical genetics at Newcastle University, said: “Early Diagnostics Institute’s proven expertise in proteomics provides an excellent base for an imaginative programme aimed at more effective and efficient identification of disease.
“My own research efforts are focused on my considerable experience in the molecular diagnostics field, but I have no doubt that we will need a broader, multi-faceted approach combining all available parameters if we are to make significant headway, which I believe Early Diagnostics Institute can deliver on.”
