The Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn yesterday (Wednesday 16 January) announced details of a new Genetics Knowledge Park in Cambridge. The new initiative is part of a national programme to prepare the NHS for the genetics revolution.

Speaking at a major conference on genetics and health, Alan Milburn set out his vision of how advances in genetics could transform the future delivery of healthcare. He announced details of two national genetics reference laboratories and five Genetics Knowledge Parks, one of which will be sited in Cambridge.

The Cambridge Genetics Knowledge Park will bring together the many internationally renowned but currently separate academic, clinical and commercial groups in and around Cambridge. It will foster new research initiatives and collaborations in pursuit of two goals:

  • to enable genetic research findings to be translated efficiently and effectively into knowledge and interventions that will benefit individual and population health
  • and to generate wealth for the United Kingdom through the production and exploitation of intellectual property rights.

Addenbrooke's Hospital will be the host institution for the Knowledge Park, and will work closely with the Clinical School of Medicine, other departments of the University of Cambridge and other institutions.

Commenting on the announcement, Ron Zimmern, Director of the Public Health Genetics Unit, at the Strangeways Research Laboratory, said:

"We are delighted to have been selected as one of the Genetic Knowledge Parks. This will enable us to build on Cambridge's excellent record in genetic and molecular research, its expertise in the management of patients with genetic disorders and in public health genetics. The resources will allow us to bring together the many different research groups, organisations and disciplines that work on genetic issues in Cambridge and East Anglia."

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