The UK's Wellcome Trust says it will pump up its research spending by 60 percent over the next five years as it ambitiously seeks a better understanding of diseases at a genetic level. The funding spike--to £4 billion-backs a range of research projects, including the Biobank project, which is seeking a greater understanding of genetics and environmental factors as well as the Case Control Consortium, which hunts for genes involved in disease.
"One of our priorities is to increase our understanding of common human diseases at the genetic level," Wellcome chief Dr Mark Walport told the BBC. "Developments in technology have meant we can now do this kind of science on a scale that we've not been able to before."
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