In a unique research effort, kin cancer researchers from all over the world are going to be brought under one umbrella to help the world understand what exactly their risk of developing a melanoma is.

Towards this effort, the international Genomel consortium based in Leeds, England has been awarded a fund of £7 million. Dermatologist Professor Julia Newton-Bishop will lead the teams from around the world. All these teams are working on the genetics of melanoma and are engaged in identifying the risks for the same. The substantial fund has been granted by the European Union Framework 6 programme. The consortium will also develop a web site that will tell visitors if they are at risk for developing skin cancers besides incorporating a lot of useful information about the same. 'By getting all the world's major groups working on melanoma genetics to work together, we can answer very important questions which no single group could answer on its own. The research will be much more powerful partly because simply of size (pooled, much larger amounts of data) and because GenoMEL brings together expertise together from three continents,' observed Professor Newton-Bishop.

Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer and is the cancer detected in almost 3 percent of all cancer cases.

Contact: Hannah Love pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk 44-113-343-4100 University of Leeds