GSK, University of Oxford to Uncover Mechanisms of Disease

GSK and the University of Oxford recently entered into a five-year collaboration to improve the success and speed of research and development of new medicines and unravel mechanisms of disease.

GSK and Oxford University will establish the Oxford-GSK Institute of Molecular and Computational Medicine to build on insights from human genetics and leverage advanced technology, including functional genomics and machine learning.

GSK will provide £30 million ($39.7M) to back the institute and further improvements in drug discovery and development. Scientists from GSK and Oxford scientists will prioritize early research and development programs most likely to succeed and match them to the right patients. 

Overall, the institute will evaluate and integrate new approaches in genetics, proteomics, and digital pathology to uncover patterns of disease that vary amongst individuals. 

Initially, scientists will focus on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease research. 

The institute’s directors will be John Todd, professor at Oxford University and director of the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, and Tony Wood, MD, SVP, medicinal science and technology at GSK. 

“By combining the strengths of our two scientific organizations and harnessing advanced technologies, the Oxford-GSK Institute exemplifies the UK’s track-record and continued ambition in life sciences,” Emma Walmsley, chief executive officer of GSK, said in the announcement. 

“Together, our aim is to improve drug discovery and development to help bring new and better medicines for patients,” Walmsley continued. 

The institute will discover new indicators and predictors of disease and use them to accelerate the most promising areas for drug discovery by leveraging tools like machine learning. 

Additionally, the institute will provide new measurements to establish proof of concept for potential medicines earlier in the research and development process by better identifying patients to enroll in clinical trials.

As part of the collaboration, GKS will provide its capabilities in human genetics and functional genomics and an in-house artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning function, including its AI hub in London. 

The University of Oxford will use patient, molecular information and state-of-the-art platforms to identify GSK targets that are most likely to succeed and develop into safe and effective medicines. 

The institute will recruit new research groups and provide five GSK/Oxford fellowships for early to mid-career researchers to establish themselves as principal investigators.