NWA grant for health law as part of NWA Cure4life
Mirjam Sombroek, Aart Hendriks and Martine de Vries (LUMC) will work on mapping the ethical and legal aspects of gene therapy. The aim is to establish a best practice of how society can best deal with these therapies. For example with guidelines on how to regulate, reimburse and make these therapies accessible to patients.
The three researchers are pleased with the grant. 'The interdisciplinary cooperation between Leiden Law School and the LUMC will allow us to make a major contribution to this important research theme. And this is just the start. This is a fine example of what our University wrote in its strategic plan: more cooperation between faculties!'
The entire CURE4LIFE consortium, led by the LUMC, will receive 5.5 million euros to bring gene therapy to patients faster. These types of therapies still fail far too often before they reach the clinic. This is exactly what the consortium wants to prevent in the future, among other things by answering social and legal-ethical questions about gene therapy at an early stage.
The grant is provided by the National Science Agenda (NWA). The cooperation between the LUMC and Leiden Law School was one of five interdisciplinary consortia to receive funding from the NWA.
In the coming months, research capacity will be reinforced with a PhD position on this important legal-ethical topic.