In February 2018 we were awarded a £1.7M collaborative grant from Innovate UK for a ground breaking project that could help develop new tests and treatments for patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
NAFLD is an accumulation of excess fat in the liver of people who drink little or no alcohol, and is strongly linked to type II diabetes and obesity. The progressive form of NAFLD, is known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and can lead to liver fibrosis, liver cancer and premature death. Around 25% of the population are thought to have NAFLD, so it is becoming a growing issue for the NHS.
The grant funding is being used to develop a Data Commons – SteatoSITE. A Data Commons is a unified data system that allows sharing of genomic and clinical information from patients with NASH, making it more accessible for further research. SteatoSITE will be the world’s first Data Commons for NASH and when complete will lead to a deeper understanding of which tests and treatments are most effective for individual patients.