CRUK to open functional genomics centre

A functional genomics centre co-funded by Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca will seek to speed up the discovery and development of cancer treatments, the charity has said.

Greg Hannon, director of the CRUK Cambridge Institute, is guiding the development of the centre, which he said would be a “huge asset” to UK cancer researchers.

The centre will develop high-quality, standardised techniques that will enable the creation of better biological models of disease, the handling of larger and more complex data sets and the identification of successful cancer drug targets, he said.