Bristol gene therapy centre will help fight incurable diseases

A new state-of-the-art facility which will contribute to the fight against incurable diseases has opened.

Bosses say the Bristol Clinical Biotechnology Centre (CBC) will expand the UK's ability to research and develop new therapies.

The Filton centre will look at incurable diseases such as cancer, sickle cell and cystic fibrosis. 

Officials say the centre could also offer personalised gene therapy and stem cell treatments in the future.

Nitya Raghava, 22, from Gloucester, had lifesaving CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor) cell therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

She was diagnosed through blood tests in 2016 after experiencing more than a month of fevers and headaches. 

Ms Raghava had treatment including chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant but after a relapse, CAR-T was "pretty much a last resort."

In 2019, she went on to become the first person to receive CAR-T therapy at the Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, where CBC will be based.

Ms Raghava has now been free of the disease for four years and is studying at University College London.

"CAR-T was absolutely lifesaving for me. Without it, I don't think I would be here," she said.

"I feel lucky that I got it when I did, and I hope more people also now get the chance to have new treatments. I hope the new CBC can help other new treatments to reach patients faster."

Such advances in biotherapies offer new hope for patients for whom all other treatment options have been exhausted.

The CBC has been built at NHSBT's base in Filton, in North Bristol, and replaces a smaller, ageing unit in nearby Langford.  

Dr Lilian Hook, NHSBT's director of cell, apheresis and gene therapies said: "The CBC is basically a factory - it manufactures the building blocks (or components) needed to produce gene therapies.

"Researchers and developers can ask us to manufacture the specific components they require.

"This will enable cutting-edge research with the potential to develop cures for some critical diseases which can currently only be treated and often ultimately prove fatal." 

Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]