About the Institute

Precision medicine is the next generation of healthcare research that has the potential to provide significant benefits to patients, and affect strategic shifts in the way healthcare is delivered.

Effective development and delivery of precision medicine requires a cross-disciplinary and collaborative approach. The UCL Institute for Precision Medicine harnesses the breadth and depth of the precision medicine research activity taking place across UCL and its partner hospitals.

What is Precision Medicine?

Precision Medicine is the next generation of healthcare research that has the potential to provide significant benefits to patients and affect strategic shifts in the way healthcare is delivered. It uses an individual's genetic profile to guide decisions about the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. Developing new diagnostic tests and expanding the use of biomarkers enables the identification of the molecular cause of disease, and ultimately supports the development of novel, more precisely targeted treatments.

Different patients respond differently to the same therapy. The genetic makeup and metabolic profile of each individual patient influences the effect of a drug. It has been estimated that only 30-70% of patients respond positively to drugs. While one treatment brings about the preferred outcome in one group of patients, it may not change the condition of other groups, or may even lead to adverse effects.

Our aims

The UCL Institute for Precision Medicine aims to:

Champion 4P medicine (pre-emptive, predictive, personalised and participatory) to accelerate the development of diagnostics, drugs and therapies and ensure they are applied and evaluated effectively.
Promote communication, collaboration and cross-disciplinary working
Facilitate career development
Educate, develop and recruit outstanding researchers
Create new strategic partnerships and promote entrepreneurship

To achieve these aims we are drawing upon the wealth of expertise across disciplines, including clinical and basic research, mathematics, engineering, law, health economics, informatics, social and historical sciences.

Steering Committee

Members

Professor Philip Beales
Chair, UCL Institute for Precision Medicine
Professor of Medical and Molecular Genetics, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

Dr Maryam Atakhorrami
Industrial Partnerships Manager, UCL Translational Research Office (TRO)

Dr Chiara Bacchelli
Section Head, Personal and Experimental Medicine, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

Professor Stephan Beck
Professor of Medical Genomics, UCL Cancer Institute

Professor Ann Blandford
Director, UCL Institute of Digital Health

Professor Duncan Craig
Director, UCL School of Pharmacy

Professor Oscar Della Pasqua
Chair of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, UCL School of Pharmacy

Professor Perry Elliott
Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science

Professor Adrienne Flanagan
Professor of Musculo-Skeletal Pathology, UCL Cancer Institute

Professor Bobby Gaspar
Professor Paediatrics and Immunology, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

Professor Harry Hemingway
Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Director of UCL Institute of Health Informatics; and Director of Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research

Professor Aroon Hingorani
Director, UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science and Professor of Genetic Epidemiology

Professor Rob Horne
Professor of Behavioural Medicine, UCL School of Pharmacy

Professor Sanjay Sisodiya
Professor of Neurology UCL Institute of Neurology

Professor Hans Stauss
Director Institute of Immunity and Transplantation, Royal Free Hospital, UCL

Dr Vincenzo Libri
Head of the Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre