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Could chemotherapy really become a 'thing of the past' within twenty years?

That's the hope of scientists behind a project which promises to 'revolutionise' medicine by unlocking the secrets of DNA.

The genetic codes of one hundred thousand people with cancer or rare genetic diseases will be sequenced by the end of 2015. Researchers will then be able to compare the data with that of healthy tissue to identify the mutations and potentially develop new treatments.

Genomics England in conjunction with the NHS will run the project which was announced by David Cameron. It has centres across England in London, Cambridge and right here in Leicester.

Jim went to meet the men who are hoping to take charge of gathering this enormous amount of data locally, Doctor Julian Barwell, Consultant in Clinical Genetics at the Leicester Royal Infirmary & Dr Ed Hollox, Lecturer in Genetics at Uni of Leicester, who gave him some idea of the scale of the task at hand.