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The GSSFHS project involves the universities of Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and has been funded by the Scottish Executive and Chief Scientist Office, Scotland for £4.4M. GSSFHS is due to start imminently. GSSFHS was formerly known as GHI (Genetic Healthcare Initiative).
Most medical disorders of public health importance have a significant heritable component. The list includes not only the three current health priorities in Scotland – cancer, heart disease/stroke and mental health but also a wide range of poorly managed or currently untreatable cases of ill health including asthma, bone fracture, dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, obesity and osteoporosis. With the current changes in the demographic profile of the Scottish population, we will see a “rise and rise” of chronic disease over the next two decades. With few exceptions however the specific nature of the heritable risk factors for chronic disease remain elusive. As a result of the successful completion of the human genome project, there is an opportunity to identify and potentially neutralise these heritable (genetic) risk factors in disease surveillance, treatment optimisation, avoidance of adverse drug events and prediction of response to therapy (pharmacogenetics), health care planning and drug discovery (pharmacogenomics). There is also an urgent need to understand better the interaction between genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) perspectives. The benefits of such research to citizens and society are potentially substantial. Our multi-institutional pan Scottish proposal is thus focused on bringing together existing and complementary strengths in Scotland in the arena of genetics as applied to healthcare. In the first two years of this five-year programme we will create a Scotland-wide multidisciplinary collaboration that will provide a platform for research into the genetic basis of common complex diseases in Scotland.
NeSC Involvement The NeSC involvement in GSSFHS will be in providing an infrastructure to support secure and co-ordinated access to and usage of genetic and clinical data sets.
For more information on GHI please contact Dr Richard Sinnott (ros@dcs.gla.ac.uk)
Page updated on the 8th February 2005
Maintained by Susan Andrews