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Introduction

Hello, I'm Tony Wood. I'm the head of Medicinal Science and Technology at GSK.

About the UK Functional Genomics Capability Build call

In research and development at GSK, one of our most important strategies is that of the identification of genetically validated targets, and we've made substantial investments in that particular area, through, for example, collaborations with UK Biobank, 23andMe and other population genetics studies.

You'll also know perhaps that we've made investments in functional genomics in on West Coast of America (University of California) through the Laboratory for Genomic Research. What I'm doing through this call is beginning to initiate an equivalent plan in the United Kingdom.

Now what we want to do is to focus on two significant areas of strategy within functional genomics, that of variant to gene to function and synthetic interaction genetics, either synthetic lethality or synthetic viability. What I'm particularly interested in the context of our UK work is to be able to run scientific programs that also exemplify the growing infrastructure put in place by the life sciences industrial strategy that could be via UK Biobank, the UK Bio Resources or HDR UK, or any other element of the life sciences strategy.

This is an important area for us in GSK and I think an important area in order for the UK to be able to make the most of the fantastic progress that is made in genetics through, for example, UK Biobank and Genomics England. So I very much hope that over the coming weeks and months you're able to find some time to commit your ideas to paper. I'm looking forward to finding exciting proposals to work together with UK academia on in the area of functional genomics.

Thank you very much.