Sarah Nutland, Cambridge BioResource co-ordinator

TEN thousand city volunteers are fuelling the discovery of pioneering treatments for diseases including cancer, multiple scleroris and diabetes after donating a simple blood or saliva sample.

Research technician, Liz Blower settles volunteer Chris Austin, 43, for a body mass scan prior to his fast for BioResource

The volunteers, all living in the Cambridge area, have already had their DNA mapped as a result of supplying a sample to the Cambridge BioResource - one of the first resources of its kind, and based at the Addenbrooke’s Hospital site.

And the project – which identifies volunteers whose DNA is a desirable match for studies being conducted by Cambridge-based researchers – is seeking to double its number of members in order to make more groundbreaking research possible.

Sarah Nutland, Cambridge BioResource co-ordinator, said: “One person giving a little bit of time and saliva can have a huge impact on the potential treatments of diseases.

“Our volunteers are so fantastic and we really are grateful to them. They enable studies that would not otherwise be possible.”

Willing people aged 16 and upwards who agree to donate a blood or saliva sample and answer a few straightforward lifestyle questions can join.

They will then be contacted if they are deemed an appropriate genetic match for a research study previously approved by the scientific advisory board of the Cambridge BioResource.

They could be asked whether they are prepared to do anything from donating a small blood sample to undergoing an MRI scan of their brain or consenting to an overnight stay in hospital and a muscle biopsy.

Next month a special bus bearing Cambridge BioResource’s logo and housing a consulting room will begin touring the city’s neighbourhoods in a bid to recruit new volunteers. They can then donate samples to Cambridge BioResource on board there and then.

Since its launch in 2005, Cambridge BioResource’s invaluable resource of volunteers has become the envy of medical researchers across the country who have approached the city-based project asking to use its volunteers in their groundbreaking trials.

But as volunteers need to live close to where the research is carried out, Cambridge BioResource says the solution is to roll out the BioResource model nationally, which it is seeking to do.

And it hopes by eventually tailoring medical treatments to an individual patient’s genetic make-up, cures for diseases including cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and thyroid disease could be the legacy of the volunteers making up Cambridge BioResource.

Ms Nutland said: “We stipulate the research is Cambridge-based or in collaboration with Cambridge-based research. This is because our volunteers are Cambridge-based so we could not have them travelling to Scotland for a study.

“So this is why we want to set up a National BioResource around the country which would mean if we needed more patients from a certain group for a study, we could draw on this resource.”

Ms Nutland said the majority of Cambridge BioResource’s current 10,000 members had been recruited through the NHS Blood and Transplant centre on the Addenbrooke’s site.

But she said a big recruitment drive is needed to get a further 10,000 volunteers on board, sparking the launch of the Cambridge BioResource bus.

“We are aiming to draw people’s interest in it by making it interesting for them,” said Ms Nutland.

“For example, if Professor Bruce Ponder at Cancer Research UK in Cambridge is doing a study on lung disease, we could offer to test lung age to attract new volunteers to the BioResource and make the research relevant to them.

“We want to promote good health and that’s what BioResource is about.”

Gareth Goodier, chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – which runs Addenbrooke’s and the Rosie – said his vision was for an integrated care record for each patient which would also include relevant genetic data.

Dr Goodier said: “If we could achieve this in 10 years, that would be unique in the world and the community would benefit from it.

“In a perfect world and our long-term vision, from a clinical treatment point of view, is to design the therapy and drugs to suit an individual’s genetics.

“At the moment we could have a group of people all with the same cancer but the same drug would only work on 60 per cent of them.”

For more information on the Cambridge BioResource - which is funded by the NHS Naitonal Institute for Health Research Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre - and how to become a member, visit www.cambridgebioresource.org.uk