The world’s leading practitioners in genomics – a field of biology that will be key to delivering precision and personalised medicine – are now shaping a community of experts in Manchester. Award-winning health writer and Guardian contributor, Rachel Pugh, investigates the opportunities for local patients and international investors alike.
Genomics
Intent on saving the life of seriously premature baby Hugo Corry-Wilson, medical staff working in the neonatal intensive care unit at Manchester’s St Mary Hospital faced the possibility that in giving the antibiotic gentamicin to halt a dangerous infection, they might also cause irreversible damage to his hearing.
Four years on, a ground-breaking bedside test developed in the city can identify which babies have the biomarker for gentamicin-induced deafness, so that a different antibiotic can be used in these cases within an hour.