The Precision Medicine Centre of Excellence (PMC) is a co-investment from Invest Northern Ireland, Queen’s University Belfast and the Health & Social Care, Research & Development Division of the Public Health Agency. Our long-term vision for Precision Cancer Medicine is that all cancer patients have access to high-quality, comprehensive and timely molecular characterization of their tumour to inform therapeutic and clinical management.

The PMC is a new clinical laboratory bringing together high-throughput genomics, digital pathology and big data analytics in a fully integrated fashion. It aims to accelerate the translation of potentially relevant diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic findings into clinically actionable information by applying state-of-the-art technology in a clinical laboratory environment. Our partnerships and collaborations with industry, academia and healthcare organisations maximises the potential to capitalise on the value of integrated clinical and biomarker information to improve patient’s outcome

The PMC operates within a structure of two core interconnected sections – Genomics and Tissue Hybridization & Digital Pathology, linked by a Bioinformatics team and supported by a dedicated management team. The PMC, working in partnership with the successful Northern Ireland Biobank (NIB), is integrated in an existing molecular programme honed by successful research grant funding investment of several million, infrastructure programmes and clinical trials.

Within the PMC there is a great emphasis on education and training.  All affiliated staff undertake appropriate competency based training and engage in teaching of research fellows, students (undergraduate and postgraduate) as well as those undertaking clinical internships and medical rotations from cellular pathology.  Continuous educational activity is created in the PMC not only from the formal QUB taught education programmes but also through short courses, mini workshops as well as in-service tutorials, lectures and invited speaker seminars.