OXFORD is to become the home of a new £8m research centre to treat killer conditions such as cancer and diabetes.

The University of Oxford’s research laboratory at the Old Road Campus in Headington has been chosen as one of four UK centres of excellence in medical engineering, which it is hoped will transform the future of healthcare.

The Oxford centre, part of the university’s department of engineering science, will investigate areas including developing targeted drug delivery to improve the survival rates for liver cancer patients; computer modelling to improve identification of the flow of blood in the brain in stroke victims; and how mobile phone technology can help young people with diabetes.

Oxford saw off competition from 57 other applicants across the country to secure the funding, which the university believes could have a real impact on the survival rates for sufferers of these conditions.

Professor Lionel Tarass-enko, the director of Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, said: “We will be developing techniques and strategies to precisely measure individuals’ response to their condition and therapies, and use those measurements to adjust and improve the way the person is being treated.

“This approach could have a real impact on survival rates and improve the quality of life for people living with long-term conditions, from birth to old age.

“Much of the 20th century was devoted to developing treatments that are broadly effective in most people.

“However, it has become clear that long-term conditions, such as diabetes, asthma and cancer, are best managed by taking into account how the individual is responding to their particular therapy.”

Research into mobile phone technology was pioneered at Oxford University in the 1970s and 1980s.

The new centre will explore ways in which mobile technology could be used by diabetes sufferers to monitor their health on the move and receive personalised advice to adjust their treatment accordingly.

Researchers will also work on developing an ultrasound-based drug delivery system, to monitor liver cancer sufferers and vary their drug dosage, based on how their tumour is responding to their course of treatment.

About 40,000 people each year are diagnosed with liver cancer in the UK.

University scientists will also try to discover why some babies fail to grow properly in the womb.

The new centre, which is being funded by the Wellcome Trust medical research charity and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, will be officially opened on October 1.

The university will take on 30 extra staff for the new research projects, on top of the 120 scientists it already employs in biomedical engineering.

Prof Tarassenko said: “The aim in every area is to move away from the ‘one size fits all’ approach towards one focused on the problems and needs of individuals.”

Three other centres of excellence will be established at Imperial College and Kings College in London and at Leeds University.