Feature Channels: Personalized Medicine

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have begun testing for three new genetic targets and found that together they occur in approximately 50 percent of patients with squamous cell carcinomas of the lung, which affects 40,000 Americans each year. Initial findings of the research will be presented on June 4 at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.

• share
• favorite_border

Mayo Clinic has created a comprehensive mobile health application; combining a custom mobile experience with unparalleled expertise and access. Empowering patients with information at their fingertips, this app sets a new standard for health care apps.

• share
• favorite_border

With recent advancements in technology and biomedical informatics, a more personalized approach to prescribing cancer treatment and developing these therapies is preferred over “one-size-fits-all” methods. The Cancer Institute of New Jersey has been on the cutting-edge of this movement and is now launching a more concrete effort that is poised to change the way that molecular and genetic information is being used to diagnose and treat cancer – an initiative known as “precision medicine” – also known to many as “personalized medicine.”

• share
• favorite_border

Patients see potential benefits from direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but are also concerned about how test results will be used, and generally are unwilling to pay more than $10 or $20 for them.

• share
• favorite_border

Through a groundbreaking new gene sequencing technology, researchers have demonstrated that the gene FLT3 is a valid therapeutic target in Acute Myeloid Leukemia, AML, one of the most common types of leukemia. The technique, developed by Pacific Biosciences, allows for the rapid and comprehensive detection of gene mutations in patients with AML. The findings, published online April 15 in Nature, are a result of collaboration among scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, Pacific Biosciences and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. The discovery may help lead to the development of new drugs to treat AML.

• share
• favorite_border

An international consortium of researchers have identified a group of genes associated with the development of osteoporosis, a debilitating bone disease that cripples more than 10 million Americans a year and costs the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $17 billion annually. The study identified 56 genes associated with bone-mineral density (BMD), the measurement used to diagnose osteoporosis.

• share
• favorite_border

In November 2011, a National Academy of Sciences committee issued a report calling for the creation of a “Google Maps”-like data network intended to revolutionize medical discovery, diagnosis and treatment. Today, the co-chair of that committee, UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, is issuing a call-to-arms to patient advocates to help make that idea a reality.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are using powerful DNA sequencing technology not only to identify mutations at the root of a patient’s tumor – considered key to personalizing cancer treatment – but to map the genetic evolution of disease and monitor response to treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have published the first results from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia, a freely available resource that marries deeply detailed cancer genome data with predictors of drug response, information that could lead to refinements in cancer clinical trials and future treatments.

• share
• favorite_border

A Florida State University researcher is developing technologies to miniaturize the first phase of a process used by pharmaceutical companies to discover new drugs. A breakthrough could ultimately lead to personalized and therefore more effective medical treatments, as well as major health care savings.

• share
• favorite_border

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) scientists have developed a way to recreate an individual’s immune system in a mouse. The “personalized immune mouse” offers researchers an unprecedented tool for individualized analysis of abnormalities that contribute to type 1 diabetes and other autoimmune diseases, starting at the onset of disease. The findings were published today in the online edition of Science Translational Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

The experience of daily positive affect -- a mild, happy feeling -- and self-affirmation helps some patients with chronic diseases, including coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and asthma, make better decisions about their health. These findings are detailed in three studies of 756 patients published online in the Jan. 23 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine -- the first large, randomized controlled trials to show that people can use positive affect and self-affirmation to help them make and sustain behavior change.

• share
• favorite_border

To address the prospects for personalized medicine in diabetes, investigators from Albert Einstein College of Medicine have surveyed the field for existing research and published their findings in the January issue of Health Affairs. The authors are Allen M. Spiegel, M.D., the Marilyn and Stanley M. Katz Dean and former director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the NIH, and Meredith Hawkins, M.D., director of Einstein’s Global Diabetes Initiative.

• share
• favorite_border

A new cancer research centre established at the University of Adelaide will focus on treatment options tailored to the individual, taking into account DNA and genetic variations between people.

• share
• favorite_border

GeneKey Corp. announced today that it has launched a personalized cancer service that empowers patients and their oncology team to develop treatment strategies based on insight into the biology of individual tumors.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have shown that it is safe to cut and paste together different viruses in an effort to create the ultimate vehicle for gene therapy.

• share
• favorite_border

The Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) today announced the AMP Council’s unanimous approval of a strategic plan intended to guide the organization over the next four years.

• share
• favorite_border

The embryonic enzyme pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) has a well-established role in metabolism and is highly expressed in human cancers. Now, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in advance online publication of the journal Nature that PKM2 has important non-metabolic functions in cancer formation.

• share
• favorite_border

A research team led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered four new "ZIP codes" in their quest to map the vast blood vessel network of the human body.

• share
• favorite_border

In a paper published in the September 30 issue of the journal Cell, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues offer an explanation, and a framework that could lead to dietary supplements designed to treat obesity at the molecular level.