It’s smiles all round down at the East London Genes & Health study, the world’s largest community based genetics study. The project is celebrating its first milestone – 4,000 local participants have now taken part! The research project has also received a funding boost of £5 million from the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) to build an East London Genes & Health Population Genomic Medicine Centre on Newark Street, Whitechapel. The centre is also part of QMUL’s new Life Sciences Initiative.
Launched in March 2015 and led by Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), East London Genes & Health aims to improve health among people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage in East London by analysing the genes and health of 100,000 local people. The study’s 4,000th participant is Mr Zoinul Abidin, who presents the Ramadan Special programme on BetarBangla 1503 AM – a community radio station which serves the Bangladeshi and wider communities in East London.
Commenting on taking part in the East London Genes & Health study, Mr Abidin said: “I am taking part to make a difference. I want to lead by example to encourage people from the local community to come forward and take part in this significant piece of research. I lost my father to diabetes and my mother also has it. In future years this research will play its part in saving lives, and I want to play my very small part in helping make a huge difference.”
The ground floor of the new Genes Centre will be open to the local community and will provide interactive education in genetics led by Centre of The Cell, QMUL’s science education centre also based in Whitechapel. Professor David van Heel, leading the study at Queen Mary University of London, added: “Only five months into the East London Genes & Health study and we’re delighted to have reached this milestone of welcoming our 4000th participant. The local community has really got on board and shown their support for this important project and we look forward to building on this early success in the coming years.”
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