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A QUICK ROUNDUP OF NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM OUR COMMUNITY

2008; Wiley; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1752-8062.2008.00048.x

1752-8062

Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics

Clinical and Translational ScienceVolume 1, Issue 2 p. 89-90 Open Access A QUICK ROUNDUP OF NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM OUR COMMUNITY First published: 10 September 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-8062.2008.00048.xAboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat NIH Expands National Consortium Dedicated to Translational Research Our aim is to have 60 academic health centers as members of the consortium, and this takes us beyond the halfway mark to our goal. —Anthony Hayward, PhD, MD The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Award consortium has announced 14 new members. A unique network of medical research institutions across the nation, the consortium is working to reduce the time it takes to translate laboratory discoveries to therapies and to engage communities in clinical research efforts. Led by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), Bethesda, Maryland, which is part of the NIH, the consortium also aims to train the next generation of clinical and translational researchers. The latest 14 academic health centers join 24 other members of the consortium announced in 2006 and 2007. The institutions will receive $533 million over 5 years. “Our aim is to have 60 academic health centers as members of the consortium, and this takes us beyond the halfway mark to our goal,” says Anthony Hayward, PhD, MD, director of the division of Clinical Research Resources at the NCRR. The consortium is run through a series of steering committees that will decide what kind of research resources have the highest priority. Two goals of the consortium, says Dr. Hayward, are to adapt the awards to suit the needs of researchers and to bring cutting-edge science from the bench to the bedside. New NIH CTSA Consortium Members ▸ Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, New York City ▸ Boston University ▸ Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts ▸ Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis ▸ Northwestern University, Chicago and Evanston, Illinois ▸ Ohio State University, Columbus ▸ Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California ▸ Stanford University, Palo Alto, California ▸ Tufts University, Boston ▸ University of Alabama at Birmingham ▸ University of Colorado Denver, Aurora ▸ University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ▸ University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio ▸ University of Utah, Salt Lake City HHMI Announces Early Career Scientist Competition The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Maryland, has announced a new program that will support some of the nation's early career scientists. The new program was developed for researchers who have run their own labs for 2 to 6 years and are establishing their own independent research programs. It is specifically targeted to young physician-scientists working in translational research. Through a national competition, HHMI will select 70 scientists for its Early Career Scientist awards, and will award more than $300 million. Recipients will be drawn from a broad range of disciplines in biological and biomedical research, as well as chemistry, physics, computer science, and engineering research directly related to biology or medicine. HHMI plans a second competition in 2011. HHMI established this program for early career scientists because of the challenges these scientists face in an era of constrained research funding. “It is getting more and more difficult for early career scientists to obtain initial or continued funding for their research projects with grants from the NIH or other federal agencies,” says Carl Rhodes, PhD, a scientific officer at HHMI. “Many early career scientists may have obtained start-up funds for their research from their institutions for the first 3 or 4 years, but just as they are making significant progress and are beginning to branch out into new areas, it becomes more difficult to obtain funds.” In selecting award recipients, HHMI will rely on its motto of “people, not projects,” says Dr. Rhodes. “We're not looking to award funds for projects with specific goals, but to people who have the potential and the creative energy to make an impact in biomedical science.” Successful applicants will receive full salary support as well as research funding and equipment, allowing them to spend their time and energy on research and mentoring the next generation of researchers. Report: Pharmacogenomics Can address major health needs While pharmacogenomics is still an emerging field, it has the potential to address major health needs, such as reducing adverse drug reactions and improving management of chronic disease by making drug treatment safer and more effective. It also has the potential to address health care disparities by providing individualized care to large populations, according to the National Institutes of Health Report of the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics Health and Society (SACGHS). Pharmacogenomics also could improve the productivity of the new drug pipeline by helping to identify slow and fast metabolizers and nonresponders to investigational drugs, and thus improve efficiency and lower costs of clinical trials in the future, the report says. The SACGHS report includes recommendations for increased funding for basic research on an array of topics. These include the biochemical pathways associated with drug metabolism and action, genetic variations involved in these pathways, and the relationship between genetic variations and individual responses to drugs. The report also recommends more resources for translational research. Specifically, it advocates obtaining/raising funds for translating basic research findings on pharmacogenomics into clinical trials and translating clinical research findings into clinical practice, public health, insurance coverage, and health policy. “There's a great deal of excitement about pharmacogenomics. But the question remains: What clinical utility do you get at the end of the day?” says Kevin FitzGerald, PhD, research associate professor in the department of oncology and David Lauler Chair in Catholic Healthcare Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Dr. FitzGerald is one of the members of the SACGHS committee. “As well as insight and evidence into the analytic validity of pharmacogenomics, we need to make sure the bridge is built to understand the clinical utility of this research,” says Dr. FitzGerald. While pharmacogenomics' applications today are few and far between—one example is HER2/new testing of metastatic breast cancer patients for responsiveness to Herceptin—the use of genetics to assess differences in patient response to drug treatments may one day be more far-reaching. Pharmacogenomics may thus require large databases of information, and keeping that informationconfidential could be challenging, says Dr. FitzGerald. Another challenge is to engage the public in the research process so that pharmacogenomics research in the laboratory truly has meaning for patients in the clinic, he notes. New Map Shows Structural Variation in Human Genome Researchers have produced the first high-resolution map of structural variation in the human genome, which could be a standard for genotyping platforms in the future.1 The researchers, led by Evan E. Eichler, PhD, associate professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, examined the complete DNA sequences of 8 people, including 4 of African descent, 2 of Asian descent, and 2 of western European descent. They compared the DNA sequences of these 8 people with the DNA sequence derived from the Human Genome Project. Across all 9 genomes analyzed in the Nature article, the researchers found 1,695 regions where people had DNA insertions, deletions, or in-versions. The new analysis also showed that the 8 ge-nomes studied have 525 segments of DNA that were not in the original sequence of the Human Genome Project. These results suggest that the genome sequence derived by the Human Genome Project is still incomplete, and more investigation is needed—via sequencing of additional genomes—to fill in the gaps. Understanding the mutational processes that underlie insertions, deletions, or inversion will be critical as an increasing number of genomes are sequenced, according to Dr. Eichler. He and colleagues found that variable regions among the 8 genomes sequenced tended to occur in places where DNA segments are repeated. These repeated segments have a tendency to misalign during the process that produces sperm and egg cells, resulting in DNA insertions and deletions. The 8 people who Dr. Eichler and colleagues studied are part of a much larger group whose genomes will be sequenced as part of the 1,000 Genomes Project, an international effort to sequence the genomes of people from around the world. Reference 1 Kidd JM, Cooper GM, Donahue WF, et al. Mapping and sequencing of structural variation from eight human genomes. Nature. 2008; 453(7191): 56– 64. Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Becomes Law On May 21, President George W. Bush signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) into law. The law protects Americans against discrimination in employment or health insurance based on their genetic information. The bill had passed the Senate unanimously and the House of Representatives by a vote of 414 to 1; versions of the bill had been debated in Congress for the past 13 years. GINA makes it illegal for group health plans or health insurers to deny coverage to healthy individuals or charge them higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to a specific disease. It also prohibits employers from using genetic information to make hiring, firing, placement, or promotion decisions. It also allows victims of genetic dis-crimination to bring their cases to court. “This is a tremendous victory for every American not born with perfect genes—which means it's a victory for every single one of us,” says Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the author of the bill. “Since all of us are predisposed to at least a few genetic-based disorders, we are all potential victims of genetic discrimination. “Americans can finally take advantage of the tremendous potential of genetic research without the fear that their own genetic information will be used against them,” she adds. Volume1, Issue2September 2008Pages 89-90 ReferencesRelatedInformation