University of Nottingham: Lung disease affects 131,000 people in Nottinghamshire

Nottingham lung health researchers will be at the forefront of an £8.8million programme to discover how genes can help predict the likelihood of patients developing lung disease. It will also help develop new targeted drugs for diseases such as asthma and COPD.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham will join colleagues from the University of Leicester and Cambridge in the eight year study, funded by the Wellcome Trust – the first to fully connect data on the illnesses, genomics, and laboratory research.

Chronic respiratory diseases including asthma, COPD and pulmonary fibrosis, are the third commonest cause of death in the world. About 131,000 of Nottinghamshire GP patients have been diagnosed with asthma and COPD – about 12 percent of their registered lists.

The research also hopes to identify existing drugs for other diseases which could be repurposed to treat lung diseases effectively, which is faster and cheaper than developing entirely new drugs.


NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre director and respiratory consultant Professor Ian Hall, who is leading the study in Nottingham, said:

“People with lung diseases often have common patterns of variation in their genes and by analysing genetic data from hundreds of thousands of participants. We know that drug targets supported by genetic evidence are more likely to be relevant. We can therefore better target drug development research to make treatments as effective as possible for as many people as possible with lung diseases.

“Nottingham is one of the country’s leading centres of respiratory research. In particular we have expertise in using human cells and tissue to study cell functions and to investigate the effectiveness of potential new therapies. Better treatments mean people with lung disease will be able to lead better lives, and healthier people will save the NHS money.”