The Genome Sciences Centre: a platform for large-scale high-throughput genomics in British Columbia

Our genes play a major role in our health and in our susceptibility to disease. In fact, the course of every disease is thought to be influenced to some extent by genetic factors. Confounding researchers’ attempts to understand the genetic basis of health and disease are the very large number of human genes (estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000) and the limitations in technology that, up until recently, allowed researchers to study only one or a few genes at a time. At the BC Cancer Agency Genome Sciences Centre, a new laboratory unique in Canada, we are developing and using state-of-the-art technology to examine thousands of genes simultaneously, searching for those that play a role in cancer. These genes will ultimately provide new tools for early diagnosis, improved treatment strategies and discovering cures to a disease that has touched the lives of almost all of us.