WELLCOME TRUST GENOME CAMPUS

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The Sanger Institute passed three major milestones in 2005/06: in October 2005, the extension to the Genome Campus was opened by HRH The Princess Royal; in December 2005, the Wellcome Trust announced the award of £340 million funding for 2006–11; and, in September 2006, the Sanger Institute proposed a new strategic focus on natural and experimental genetics.

The Genome Campus extension includes new laboratory space for 140 staff, accommodation for model organisms and a Data Centre housing some of the UK's most powerful computers. These new facilities underpin a major drive to make data and resources available to scientists around the world.

The funding award will enable the Sanger Institute to drive forward its new strategic focus, based on large-scale studies of the effects of variation in DNA sequence in humans, model organisms such as mice and zebrafish, and pathogens.

The Sanger Institute has also attracted major awards from the European Union and the US National Institutes of Health (see Bred for success).

The Sanger Institute led the sequencing of the first human chromosome sequence – chromosome 22 – and, fittingly, it was also behind the final report, on chromosome 1, published in May 2006. Study of human genetic variation was enriched by the completion of the first phase of the International HapMap Project, in which the Sanger Institute was a major participant. It has also led efforts to map copy number variation (see On repeat).

In pathogen research, significant results include the genome sequences of Clostridium difficile and the capsule genes of the pneumococcus bacterium, both current issues for healthcare. The Sanger Institute is also involved in a project analysing the spread of influenza virus (see Influenza research funding).

The Sanger Institute produces more DNA sequence than at any time in its history, but its outputs are now focused on the medical and biological context of sequence data.

Wellcome Trust Advanced Courses

The programme expanded significantly in 2005/06, doubling the number of courses run for PhD students and postdoctoral scientists. New courses included 'The Molecular Basis of Infection: Basic and applied research approaches', a laboratory-based course on new molecular techniques used to study bacterial infection.

A new initiative this year has been the expansion of courses overseas. Two human bioinformatics workshops were held in Mexico and Brazil, and an IT suite has been set up in the Institute of Hygiene in Uruguay, as a base for the Advanced Courses training programme in South America.

Extra courses are planned for 2006/07, both at the Genome Campus and overseas, starting with a workshop at the KEMRI–Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya in December 2006.

Wellcome Trust Conference Centre and Meetings Programme

A total of 14 scientific meetings were held as part of the Wellcome Trust Meetings Programme at Hinxton this year. These included two meetings held jointly with University of California San Diego and Cell, several in partnership with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and a conference on vaccine adjuvants held jointly with the World Health Organization and the Malaria Vaccines Initiative.

A review of the Meetings Programme was carried out in conjunction with Keystone Symposia. The results were positive. Overall, 98 per cent of respondents said that the meeting they had attended had been good for them.

The Wellcome Trust Conference Centre operates as a semi-commercial entity. It completed its first three-year business plan in 2005/06, meeting its efficiency, quality and standards targets. Over 60 major scientific meetings and courses were held at the Conference Centre, generating revenue of £1.7m. Most meetings were scientific and research-focused, so qualified for extensive discounts.