Annual Review 2012: Challenge 1 - Maximising the health benefits of genetics and genomics

We fund a wide array of research into how genes affect health and disease, and work to ensure that this knowledge lead to new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent illness.

In this year's ‘Annual Review’, we welcome two promising applications of gene therapy: a clinical trial of a technique to treat choroideraemia, which causes progressive blindness, and a technique to repair genetic faults using stem cells and genetic engineering. Other achievements from the year include the discovery of a gene that increases the risk of a common type of stroke, a show developed for 360-degree planetariums taking audiences on a journey through our cells, a study that shed light on the viral DNA in our genomes, and clues to the genetic basis of cancer treatments from the Cancer Genome Project at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute..

Further resources

Here are links to information relating to each of this year's 'Annual Review' stories in challenge 1:

Gene therapies (page 21)

• News: Novel gene therapy for type of blindness
• News: New gene therapy corrects mutation in stem cells
• Opinion: Clinicians need to be scientists too

Gene linked to stroke (page 22)

• News: Genetic variant increases risk of stroke
• 2012 ‘Nature Genetics’ paper
• Wellcome Trust blog: Focus on Stroke

Cellular celebration (page 22)

• Cell! Cell! Cell! website

Ancient viruses in our genomes (page 22)

• Press release: How ancient viruses became genomic ‘superspreaders’
• 2012 ‘PNAS’ paper

Genetic clues to new cancer treatments (page 23)

• News: Research uncovers genetic basis of cancer treatment
• 2012 ‘Nature’ paper
• Sanger Institute: Cancer Genome Project website

Image: Photograph of an eye. Credit: Alloy Photography/Veer