THE North-East is one of only nine centres in England selected to run a new masters degree in the futuristic discipline of genomic medicine.

Newcastle University will run the new MSc genomics medicine programme with Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s Northern Genetics Service.

Health Education England (HEE), in partnership with Genomics England, NHS England and Public Health England has commissioned the course.

Genomics is the study of genes and their functions, focusing on the structure, evolution and mapping of an organism’s complete set of DNA.

The successful course bid was led by Dr John Sayer, an academic senior clinical lecturer at Newcastle University’s Institute of Genetic Medicine and honorary nephrologist at the Freeman Hospital.

Dr Sayer said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for Newcastle University to host a new, bespoke masters in genomics medicine course, working alongside clinical experts in this field based at the Northern Genetics Service who will help to deliver the course.

“It is also an exciting time for students, which will include NHS staff from across the whole breadth of clinical and laboratory services.

“The vision is to educate NHS staff, allowing them to embrace genomics and integrate this knowledge into their workplace, for the improvement of patient care.”

The course will be available to NHS staff, with fees being paid by ring-fenced funding from HEE. The programme has been designed to run as a full-time and part-time MSc or postgraduate diploma. In addition, components of the course can be taken as continuing professional development, or credit can be built up to achieve a postgraduate certificate.

Newcastle University and the Newcastle Hospitals Trust are already part of the ground-breaking 100,000 genomes project which consists of collecting and decoding human genomes that will help scientists and doctors to understand rare disease and will lead to the design of personalised treatments.