Published: 30-09-2021 08:34 | Updated: 18-08-2022 09:52

Major investment on precision medicine and its clinical application

Blocks with icons representing health and healthcare stacked on top of each other like a pyramid.
A new major precision medicine investment will accelerate its introduction into Swedish healthcare. Photo: Getty Images

The government is set to invest through the innovation authority Vinnova another SEK 96 million on Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS), a national organisation led from Karolinska Institutet. Regions and universities are also putting up SEK 124 million, making a total of SEK 220 million that will make it possible to continue introducing precision medicine into Swedish healthcare.

Richard Rosenquist Brandell.
Richard Rosenquist Brandell, chair of GMS and professor at KI. Photo: N/A

The aim of the investment is to give every individual in Sweden access to more precise diagnostics and personalised care, writes GMS in a press release.

GMS, which is led from Karolinska Institutet, has several committees headed by people from KI and Karolinska University Hospital on childhood cancer, rare diagnoses, infectious diseases and informatics.

“The major investment on precision medicine from Vinnova and GMS is important to both research and the nationwide implementation of precision medicine,” says Richard Rosenquist Brandell, chair of GMS and professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, KI, and consultant in clinical genetics at Karolinska University Hospital. “It dovetails particularly well with the work being done on precision medicine at KI and Karolinska University Hospital.”

To strengthen research and innovation

Portrait photo of Anna Wedell, professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery. Photo: Stefan Zimmerman
Anna Wedell, director of the PMCK and professor at Karolinska Institutet. Photo: Stefan Zimmerman

Genomic Medicine Sweden (GMS) aims to effect the equitable implementation of precision medicine in the country and to bolster research and innovation in the field. Regional centres for genomic medicine (GMC) have been established in all regions with a university hospital and an informatics infrastructure – a national genomic platform – is in place as a research resource to promote the development of new precision drugs and greater collaboration with industry.

“At Genomic Medicine Centre Karolinska (GMCK), our regional node, KI, Karolinska University Hospital and SciLifeLab collaborate closely to develop new types of precision diagnostics when can then be introduced into routine care,” says Anna Wedell, director of the PMCK, professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery and consultant at the Centre for Inherited Metabolic Diseases at Karolinska University Hospital. “GMCK is also a key component of the newly started Precision Medicine Centre Karolinska (PMCK).”