[Source: Karin Lorentzen, AHSC Office of Public Affairs] - In the world of pharmaceutical science, the question of why two very similar individuals can react differently to a drug is the subject of intense interest.
At The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, researchers are striving to find answers to seemingly simple questions asked by patients, such as, "Why did I have to try three different high blood pressure medications before my doctor found one that worked for me?" and "Why did my cancer stay in remission with drug treatment, but my friend who had the same treatment was not so fortunate?"
At the basis of the answers to these questions is a field of study called pharmacogenomics, the analysis of how the expression of the human genome, the DNA code that instructs the making of the machinery of a cell, is key to the body's response to drugs.
"Importantly," said Walt Klimecki, assistant professor at UA College of Pharmacy, "pharmacogenomics helps us understand why two apparently similar individuals could have very different responses to the same drug. It holds the promise that drugs might one day be tailor-made for individuals and adapted to each person's own particular makeup."
In his lab at the UA's BIO5 Institute, Klimecki and Alicia Bolt, a graduate student in pharmacology and toxicology, are conducting pharmacogenomic research on a collection of white blood cells taken from about 200 healthy individuals from diverse global populations in the United States, China and Africa. The cells have been manipulated experimentally so that they can easily be grown in a plastic flask with growth media. Klimecki stores stocks of these individuals' cells in a lab freezer at the BIO5 Institute – a "town in a tube," he said.
This system allows Klimecki and Bolt to explore the diversity of individual variation in drug response in a much more controlled way than could be possible with the short-lived samples taken directly from human study participants.
In the lab, Klimecki and Bolt expose the white blood cells to arsenic trioxide, a relatively recent addition to the cancer-treatment arsenal in the United States, to measure how different expression patterns of the genome can predict response to this anti-cancer drug.
To measure differences in drug response, they use a technology called microarrays, a highly miniaturized analysis technology that allows scientists to measure the levels of each and every product contained in the master recipe book that is the human genome. For example, on one typical microscope slide, 44,000 such products can be measured four separate times.
Bolt reported he results of the research this month at the Mountain West Society of Toxicology meeting. In her abstract, Bolt states that a frequent observation in humans is the scenario of a relatively uniform toxicant exposure that is associated with a variable response. "The results are exciting," said Bolt. "Our observations suggest that this cell line model reproduces the inter-individual variation seen in arsenic-induced cell-killing observed in humans."
"Our research to date is encouraging," Klimecki said, "but these are complicated problems to solve. We need to study the effects of both genetics and the environment. The long-term solutions to these complex problems are going to involve multidisciplinary teams that include pharmacist-scientists, pharmacologists, toxicologists, chemists and computational/statistical scientists. But the results will be worth the work. These approaches and tools are an important part of the movement away from ‘trial-and-error' drug selection to the more individually targeted drug choices that are on the horizon."
Showing posts with label Partnership for Personalized Medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Partnership for Personalized Medicine. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Shining a light on genetic testing
[Source: Ken Alltucker, The Arizona Republic] - Arizonans can buy tests that predict whether they are likely to get cancer, develop thinking problems or even go bald.
Such tests can be purchased over the Web in the largely unregulated market of direct-to-consumer genetic testing. A handful of Arizona companies and institutes already sell or are developing such tests.
And while federal regulators largely have taken a hands-off approach to scrutinizing this burgeoning industry, California regulators last month issued cease-and-desist letters to 13 companies that sell the tests.
Watchdogs embraced the California crackdown because they believe that more government scrutiny is desperately needed to rein in a freewheeling industry.
Scientists, counselors and others have been critical of the government's oversight and worry that consumers may be making medical decisions based on unproven tests that are not backed by sound science.
The stakes are high in Arizona and elsewhere as companies either sell tests or are developing diagnostics with an eye toward a medical era when such tests are a standard part of care.
"People think these tests will provide them good information that will modify their health," said Angela Trepanier, president of Chicago-based National Society of Genetic Counselors. "I am worried they are making health decisions based on tests that may not be valid."
The emergence of the genetic-testing industry has been made possible by the unlocking of the human genome, which provides scientists and doctors unprecedented information about an individual's DNA and how wayward genes contribute to disease.
Now, more than 1,500 such molecular-level tests are available, through doctors, certified labs or direct sales to consumers over the Internet.
Some gene tests have been widely accepted in the medical community. One test is used to predict whether a breast-cancer patient is likely to respond to the drug Herceptin. Another measures KRAS gene mutation in colon-cancer patients The KRAS test, sold by Caris MPI in Phoenix and a handful of other companies, predicts whether two existing drugs, Erbitux and Vectibix, are likely to work on colon-cancer patients.
Questionable tests
In California's probe of the 13 genomics companies, the state cited questions about whether the labs were certified and whether physicians monitored the tests. Earlier this year, the state of New York also sent similar enforcement letters to a half-dozen companies.
HairDx was among the companies named by California. The Irvine, Calif.-based company sells a test that predicts baldness.
This week, the company announced it is dropping its direct-to-consumer sales. In Arizona, the company sells its test at the Bosley Medical hair-restoration clinic in Scottsdale.
HairDx representatives said they don't think tougher oversight of the baldness-gene test is necessary.
"For a test like ours, I don't think it's a big deal," said Jon Boroshok, spokesman for HairDx. "We are looking at a genetic test for baldness. We are not curing cancer."
Provista Life Sciences in Phoenix sells the Bt Test that it says can help detect breast cancer. It considers the test to be a "diagnostic" one even though it's based on identifying biomarkers associated with disease.
William Gartner, CEO at Provista, said that he believes that direct-to-consumer genetic testing is bringing scrutiny to the medical testing industry overall.
"There are companies that offer tests that don't mean anything," Gartner said. "Those companies have brought regulation upon the industry. They deserve to be regulated out of business."
Among the firms targeted by California includes Navigenics, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based genetic-profiling company that was co-founded by TGen's former deputy director, Dietrich Stephan. Stephan is on sabbatical from TGen.
Navigenics charges members $2,000 followed by small annual payments for gene scans of more than a dozen potential diseases.
Navigenics officials said the company believes it meets California's requirements.
More oversight needed?
Some experts believe that standards are needed for the medical community and patients to gain confidence in genetic tests.
In April, the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University published a paper calling for more Food and Drug Administration oversight of tests and Federal Trade Commission enforcement to halt false or misleading advertising claims. Also, testing data should be made public so others can judge the tests' validity, it said.
"We have seen some cases where the science is outpaced by the claims," said Gail Javitt, law and director of the genetics and public-policy center.
"There are tests that have not been validated, and there is not clear federal oversight to ensure patients and health-care providers are protected."
The Arizona-based Partnership for Personalized Medicine, which includes scientists from TGen and Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, is seeking to develop a protein-based test for lung cancer as part of a $200 million research project funded by the government of Luxembourg.
The initiative is headed by Leland Hartwell, the Nobel Prize winner who believes more accurate tests are the future of medicine.
Gartner, of Provista, said he doesn't oppose more regulation of the testing industry, but he said it also may drive costs higher.
"I don't have a problem with it (more regulation)," Gartner said. "It would be very hard for me to go to sleep at night if I didn't believe in the clinical data on our Bt Test."
Such tests can be purchased over the Web in the largely unregulated market of direct-to-consumer genetic testing. A handful of Arizona companies and institutes already sell or are developing such tests.
And while federal regulators largely have taken a hands-off approach to scrutinizing this burgeoning industry, California regulators last month issued cease-and-desist letters to 13 companies that sell the tests.
Watchdogs embraced the California crackdown because they believe that more government scrutiny is desperately needed to rein in a freewheeling industry.
Scientists, counselors and others have been critical of the government's oversight and worry that consumers may be making medical decisions based on unproven tests that are not backed by sound science.
The stakes are high in Arizona and elsewhere as companies either sell tests or are developing diagnostics with an eye toward a medical era when such tests are a standard part of care.
"People think these tests will provide them good information that will modify their health," said Angela Trepanier, president of Chicago-based National Society of Genetic Counselors. "I am worried they are making health decisions based on tests that may not be valid."
The emergence of the genetic-testing industry has been made possible by the unlocking of the human genome, which provides scientists and doctors unprecedented information about an individual's DNA and how wayward genes contribute to disease.
Now, more than 1,500 such molecular-level tests are available, through doctors, certified labs or direct sales to consumers over the Internet.
Some gene tests have been widely accepted in the medical community. One test is used to predict whether a breast-cancer patient is likely to respond to the drug Herceptin. Another measures KRAS gene mutation in colon-cancer patients The KRAS test, sold by Caris MPI in Phoenix and a handful of other companies, predicts whether two existing drugs, Erbitux and Vectibix, are likely to work on colon-cancer patients.
Questionable tests
In California's probe of the 13 genomics companies, the state cited questions about whether the labs were certified and whether physicians monitored the tests. Earlier this year, the state of New York also sent similar enforcement letters to a half-dozen companies.
HairDx was among the companies named by California. The Irvine, Calif.-based company sells a test that predicts baldness.
This week, the company announced it is dropping its direct-to-consumer sales. In Arizona, the company sells its test at the Bosley Medical hair-restoration clinic in Scottsdale.
HairDx representatives said they don't think tougher oversight of the baldness-gene test is necessary.
"For a test like ours, I don't think it's a big deal," said Jon Boroshok, spokesman for HairDx. "We are looking at a genetic test for baldness. We are not curing cancer."
Provista Life Sciences in Phoenix sells the Bt Test that it says can help detect breast cancer. It considers the test to be a "diagnostic" one even though it's based on identifying biomarkers associated with disease.
William Gartner, CEO at Provista, said that he believes that direct-to-consumer genetic testing is bringing scrutiny to the medical testing industry overall.
"There are companies that offer tests that don't mean anything," Gartner said. "Those companies have brought regulation upon the industry. They deserve to be regulated out of business."
Among the firms targeted by California includes Navigenics, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based genetic-profiling company that was co-founded by TGen's former deputy director, Dietrich Stephan. Stephan is on sabbatical from TGen.
Navigenics charges members $2,000 followed by small annual payments for gene scans of more than a dozen potential diseases.
Navigenics officials said the company believes it meets California's requirements.
More oversight needed?
Some experts believe that standards are needed for the medical community and patients to gain confidence in genetic tests.
In April, the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University published a paper calling for more Food and Drug Administration oversight of tests and Federal Trade Commission enforcement to halt false or misleading advertising claims. Also, testing data should be made public so others can judge the tests' validity, it said.
"We have seen some cases where the science is outpaced by the claims," said Gail Javitt, law and director of the genetics and public-policy center.
"There are tests that have not been validated, and there is not clear federal oversight to ensure patients and health-care providers are protected."
The Arizona-based Partnership for Personalized Medicine, which includes scientists from TGen and Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, is seeking to develop a protein-based test for lung cancer as part of a $200 million research project funded by the government of Luxembourg.
The initiative is headed by Leland Hartwell, the Nobel Prize winner who believes more accurate tests are the future of medicine.
Gartner, of Provista, said he doesn't oppose more regulation of the testing industry, but he said it also may drive costs higher.
"I don't have a problem with it (more regulation)," Gartner said. "It would be very hard for me to go to sleep at night if I didn't believe in the clinical data on our Bt Test."
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Consultant in TGen Development Helps Bring Luxembourg, Three US Institutions Together
[Source: BioRegion News] - http://www.bioregionnews.com/issues/2_26/brn_interview/147888-1.html
Luxembourg is home to the world’s largest steel company, the world’s highest per-capita income, and, according to a Mercer survey released earlier this month, holds the title of the world’s safest city.
And in recent years, Luxembourg has sought another global distinction, that of a top-tier life sciences sector. Earlier this month, the world’s sole remaining grand duchy — and Europe’s lowest-taxed country — took a key step toward developing a “center of excellence” for bioscience when it announced it had established a trans-Atlantic series of collaborations with three US-based institutions:
The Institute for Systems Biology will collaborate with the University of Luxembourg to create the Center for Systems Biology Luxembourg. The two plan to complete a personalized human genome sequencing map for at least 100 subjects, in hopes of creating new methods for understanding the role genetic variations play in disease. ISB and the university also plan to develop integrated systems proteomics, RNA and cell analysis tools, and methods based on the institute’s discovery of protein blood “fingerprints” and single-cell characteristics reflecting the physiological state of the body's 50 major organs.
In addition, the Partnership for Personalized Medicine will join with TGen, the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center on research projects to develop molecular diagnostics for lung cancer.
Luxembourg — which said it will spend $200 million toward the collaboration — is a client of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which represented the European country in the two years of discussions with principals of the participating institutions that culminated in the June 6 announcement.
Gerry McDougall, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Sciences practice, spoke recently with BioRegion News about the US institutions’ partnership with the government of Luxembourg, as well as its broader pursuit of the life sciences.
What are Luxembourg’s attractions to life sciences institutes and companies?
They have a very conscious, a very deep strategy in diversifying their economy. And they’re looking to do that around the knowledge economy, but specifically in the biotech sector. The major part of their economy is financial services, and they’re doing quite well. I think they have one of the largest [gross domestic products] per capita in the world [Luxembourg recorded the world’s highest gross national income per capita in 2006 with $71,240, according to the World Bank — Ed.]. They want to diversify that economy, and they’re really looking at a long-term strategy. They want to invest in research and development, in biomedical research, increase their investment over time, link that investment to education and healthcare, and create economic development on a longer-term scale.
A 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers report found that Luxembourg enjoyed the lowest taxes in Europe. How crucial was that factor in establishing the relationships with Luxembourg?
To be honest with you, this is a completely separate project. That’s news to me. But it doesn’t surprise me, because of their wealth, and their ability to make things incredibly attractive from a business standpoint.
You said Luxembourg wants to diversify its economy. How is it concentrated today?
The majority of their economy is financial services and steel. Their economy was predominantly steel up to the 1960s and ‘70s. For a multitude of reasons, they lost their global competitiveness with Asia and India, and they diversified into financial services, which grew incredibly fast. Today the predominance of their economy is the financial services sector. They also have logistics and technology, so they’re looking to diversify into this area of growth, the life sciences.
Also in recent years, Luxembourg has drawn top global technology companies that include Microsoft and Skype. Does this life sciences initiative augur more of a change to the sciences for Luxembourg?
Absolutely. They’re looking at this as an area to get into, the biomedical sciences, and they have a longer-term strategy for that.
How did you come to be involved in the initiative with Luxembourg?
[Luxembourg officials] contacted PwC … at a BIO conference several years ago, and asked me to go out and speak about economic diversification in life sciences in February of last year. I talked about a couple of case studies, one of them being TGen in Phoenix, Ariz. That began a discussion for us to work with the Luxembourg government — PwC US and PwC Luxembourg — to facilitate some discussions with US institutions in creating strategic partnerships or strategic alliances.
In October of last year, we facilitated discussions with four or five US institutions, and [memorandums of understanding] were signed with three of them. And then we worked with the US institutions and the Luxembourg government on planning and due diligence related to the strategic alliances, and we facilitated that. And now they have these agreements. That’s how we got to where we are today.
What presence, if any, have the institutions involved in this effort had in Luxembourg until now?
Jeff Trent, the president and chief scientific officer [of TGen] — several of his faculty had some research alliances with individual investigators in Luxembourg. But that was not the catalyst; that was more of a coincidence.
TGen has served to spark or catalyze Arizona’s life sciences effort over roughly the past decade. How much was that a factor in Luxembourg looking to hook up with TGen?
Very much so. [The government of Luxembourg] did their own global due diligence related to this strategy. And in their research, TGen emerged as a case study, and that’s why they contacted me, because of my role in the creation of TGen [McDougall helped develop TGen as a consultant hired by a working group of academic, business, and civic leaders that successfully drew the institute to Arizona by raising $90 million over five months in 2002 — Ed.]. They looked at that as a really good example of how, where you don’t have critical mass, you can actually create something unique if you’re focused. You can be a player. That was very key to them in determining their strategy.
For TGen, does the Luxembourg consortium represent a different area of specialization, or build on something TGen already does in Phoenix?
Absolutely. [Biobanking] is a core competency that they have. The translational Genomics Research institution, they have very sophisticated biorepositories. That was one of the reasons why they were selected for this initial project.
Dr. Trent is the co-PI on the Atlas project, which is the project that is collecting oncology specimens around the country for [the National Cancer Institute].
Where will the consortium carry out its research? In facilities in Luxembourg, or within facilities of the American partner institutions?
It’s a combination. The goal is for knowledge transfer over the next three to five years, so that Luxembourg has the world-class sophistication to do these types of research — proteomics and the like in systems biology. Some of that will be done in the US, and Luxembourg scientists will be trained in the US, to then … re-establish themselves back in Luxembourg once the infrastructure is in place. The combination of activity will be done in the US and Luxembourg, with the goal and the plan of getting self-sustaining in Luxembourg at the end of these projects.
Any discussion at this point of how many additional people the institutions will need to carry out the research?
The specifics around the number of [full-time equivalent staffers] are still being worked out right now. And they’re being integrated into the growth plans of Luxembourg around their biotechnology initiatives, with the [Centre de Recherche Public-Santé, or Public Research Center for Health], the University of Luxembourg, and health care systems.
How will Luxembourg attempt to complement what has been done elsewhere in Europe? And to what extent is this competitive with other European countries?
They’re an incredibly sophisticated government, and they’re looking at unique and unmet needs in the healthcare system. So one of the things they want to focus on initially is molecular diagnostics, and become a center of excellence around molecular diagnostics, in order to enable the early detection of diseases. So they’re not trying to compete in deep established areas in the pharmaceutical or device areas. They’re trying to create their niche where they can take advantage of their geographic location. So they don’t see this as competitive.
These are joint projects with Luxembourg scientists and physicians working with US scientists and physicians. The disease focus and the projects were selected collaboratively. Lung cancer, for example, has emerged as an area [where] new techniques in proteomics have the physicians and scientists very optimistic that … an early diagnostic can be created. So they were developed collaboratively and complementary to where Luxembourg is heading.
You cited Luxembourg’s commitment to increasing research. Can you quantify how much that economic segment has increased in the past five years?
They’re looking to increase by percentage of GDP. I think they’re approaching 1 to 1.5 [percent], and they want to double that over the next several years, with R&D being up to 3 percent of GDP, which is consistent with the [national] strategy. And so that’s what the underpinning of this is.
How far back has Luxembourg sought to increase its presence in biotechnology?
They have research institutions in Luxembourg; they call them CRPs. And that’s been kind of their foundation. This has probably been several years in the making, and, now they’ve just accelerated that by creating these strategic alliances.
There was some concern a few years back about the level of public education in biotech, and there was talk about stepping that up. How has Luxembourg addressed the issue?
They’re putting a great deal of investment into education. The University of Luxembourg is expanding its programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, dramatically. They’re expanding the campus, and that is definitely one of the pillars of this strategy: To increase their education not only of the human resources talent pool within the country, but also the society. There are going to be outreach programs as well related to all of these projects.
The consortium has said Luxembourg will spend $200 million toward the projects over a three-year period. How much additional investment is that expected to leverage?
At this point, I don’t have a number on that. It’s meant to be a long-term strategy. They want to be self-sustaining within the country, so this is about knowledge transfer and long-term strategic relationships with these organizations. It will include a discussion of renewals and spinoff companies, but right now, there isn’t a number tied to it.
What role, if any, will the European Union play?
Luxembourg [works] within the region. They’re so centrally located, so [for] all these projects in lung cancer and some of the future therapeutic areas that Dr. Hood will look at, they will need to collaborate with the greater region of Belgium, France, and Germany. Luxembourg is strategically positioned right in the middle of 4 million people. They’re very close to European cities. So it’s going to be key that this is a European initiative. It has to go beyond the borders of Luxembourg.
The University of Luxembourg is the single academic research university in the country. How important was it, as a result, to bring institutes from the US into this effort?
The university’s expansion has been a recent phenomenon. Their investment in the University of Luxembourg is [because] they’re creating an institute in systems biology in the future, and that was a coincidence of the link with the Institutes for Systems Biology in Seattle with Dr. Lee Hood.
As the press release says, that’s a great synergy. But when we began this, we were not aware of their expansion programs when we were linking them. It was more about Dr. Hood’s work around personalized medicine … It was more the scientific projects themselves, about personalized medicine and Dr. [Leland] Hartwell and the Partnership for Personalized Medicine. It was a necessity to create a state-of-the-art biorepository to be able to do that project, as well as Dr. Hood’s project, which will need biospecimens as well. It was more about world-class excellence than it was about the existing infrastructure in place.
On the planned biobank, who would run the facility? A government entity? A public-private group?
It’s going to be a separate foundation that will run the IBBL. It will be funded by the government, but it will be independent.
In terms of cost, have any figures been broken out for the cost of the biobank or the other two components?
No. They’re really looking at it as a whole, not as individual projects.
Are there locations in place for any of the three proposed projects?
The two research projects — the Institute for Systems Biology, and the Commission on Lung Cancer — those would be at the CRP Santé. The ISB projects would be coordinated through the University of Luxembourg. And then the IBBL, the Integrated Biorepository Bank of Luxembourg, would be an entity to be formed and located in Luxembourg.
For the biobank, have any institutions agreed to send samples for collection?
Not as of yet. There have been some discussions, but it hasn’t been created. And there are some very good working relationships with the surrounding countries, and some very large hospital systems.
What are the next steps for the consortium partners?
They are developing implementation plans, and moving forward as aggressively as possible [to] past this announcement, and get to reach scientific milestones, and hopefully clinical applications in the next few years.
What’s the timeframe for ramping up on these three initiatives?
They want to be fully operational within six to nine months.
What’s the potential for additional US or European institutions to join any of these efforts?
I think this is a great model. We have very complementary strategies, and these chronic diseases have no borders. They are built to be long-term and sustainable relationships over time. And I think it has a very high likelihood that that’s going to happen. Luxembourg is a wonderful partner for these US institutions. These relationships are with the ministers of economy and foreign trade; culture, higher education, and research; and health. That is unprecedented. As they expand their biotechnology initiatives, it would be a strong possibility that additional relationships could be established, in the US or elsewhere.
Luxembourg is home to the world’s largest steel company, the world’s highest per-capita income, and, according to a Mercer survey released earlier this month, holds the title of the world’s safest city.
And in recent years, Luxembourg has sought another global distinction, that of a top-tier life sciences sector. Earlier this month, the world’s sole remaining grand duchy — and Europe’s lowest-taxed country — took a key step toward developing a “center of excellence” for bioscience when it announced it had established a trans-Atlantic series of collaborations with three US-based institutions:
The Partnership for Personalized Medicine, headed by Leland Hartwell, a 2001 Nobel laureate and president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle;
Another Seattle research center, the Institute for Systems Biology, whose president Leroy Hood co-founded biotech giant Amgen; and
The Arizona-based Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, whose president and scientific director Jeffrey Trent once served as scientific director at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The Institute for Systems Biology will collaborate with the University of Luxembourg to create the Center for Systems Biology Luxembourg. The two plan to complete a personalized human genome sequencing map for at least 100 subjects, in hopes of creating new methods for understanding the role genetic variations play in disease. ISB and the university also plan to develop integrated systems proteomics, RNA and cell analysis tools, and methods based on the institute’s discovery of protein blood “fingerprints” and single-cell characteristics reflecting the physiological state of the body's 50 major organs.
In addition, the Partnership for Personalized Medicine will join with TGen, the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center on research projects to develop molecular diagnostics for lung cancer.
Luxembourg — which said it will spend $200 million toward the collaboration — is a client of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which represented the European country in the two years of discussions with principals of the participating institutions that culminated in the June 6 announcement.
Gerry McDougall, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Sciences practice, spoke recently with BioRegion News about the US institutions’ partnership with the government of Luxembourg, as well as its broader pursuit of the life sciences.
What are Luxembourg’s attractions to life sciences institutes and companies?
They have a very conscious, a very deep strategy in diversifying their economy. And they’re looking to do that around the knowledge economy, but specifically in the biotech sector. The major part of their economy is financial services, and they’re doing quite well. I think they have one of the largest [gross domestic products] per capita in the world [Luxembourg recorded the world’s highest gross national income per capita in 2006 with $71,240, according to the World Bank — Ed.]. They want to diversify that economy, and they’re really looking at a long-term strategy. They want to invest in research and development, in biomedical research, increase their investment over time, link that investment to education and healthcare, and create economic development on a longer-term scale.
A 2006 PricewaterhouseCoopers report found that Luxembourg enjoyed the lowest taxes in Europe. How crucial was that factor in establishing the relationships with Luxembourg?
To be honest with you, this is a completely separate project. That’s news to me. But it doesn’t surprise me, because of their wealth, and their ability to make things incredibly attractive from a business standpoint.
You said Luxembourg wants to diversify its economy. How is it concentrated today?
The majority of their economy is financial services and steel. Their economy was predominantly steel up to the 1960s and ‘70s. For a multitude of reasons, they lost their global competitiveness with Asia and India, and they diversified into financial services, which grew incredibly fast. Today the predominance of their economy is the financial services sector. They also have logistics and technology, so they’re looking to diversify into this area of growth, the life sciences.
Also in recent years, Luxembourg has drawn top global technology companies that include Microsoft and Skype. Does this life sciences initiative augur more of a change to the sciences for Luxembourg?
Absolutely. They’re looking at this as an area to get into, the biomedical sciences, and they have a longer-term strategy for that.
How did you come to be involved in the initiative with Luxembourg?
[Luxembourg officials] contacted PwC … at a BIO conference several years ago, and asked me to go out and speak about economic diversification in life sciences in February of last year. I talked about a couple of case studies, one of them being TGen in Phoenix, Ariz. That began a discussion for us to work with the Luxembourg government — PwC US and PwC Luxembourg — to facilitate some discussions with US institutions in creating strategic partnerships or strategic alliances.
In October of last year, we facilitated discussions with four or five US institutions, and [memorandums of understanding] were signed with three of them. And then we worked with the US institutions and the Luxembourg government on planning and due diligence related to the strategic alliances, and we facilitated that. And now they have these agreements. That’s how we got to where we are today.
What presence, if any, have the institutions involved in this effort had in Luxembourg until now?
Jeff Trent, the president and chief scientific officer [of TGen] — several of his faculty had some research alliances with individual investigators in Luxembourg. But that was not the catalyst; that was more of a coincidence.
TGen has served to spark or catalyze Arizona’s life sciences effort over roughly the past decade. How much was that a factor in Luxembourg looking to hook up with TGen?
Very much so. [The government of Luxembourg] did their own global due diligence related to this strategy. And in their research, TGen emerged as a case study, and that’s why they contacted me, because of my role in the creation of TGen [McDougall helped develop TGen as a consultant hired by a working group of academic, business, and civic leaders that successfully drew the institute to Arizona by raising $90 million over five months in 2002 — Ed.]. They looked at that as a really good example of how, where you don’t have critical mass, you can actually create something unique if you’re focused. You can be a player. That was very key to them in determining their strategy.
For TGen, does the Luxembourg consortium represent a different area of specialization, or build on something TGen already does in Phoenix?
Absolutely. [Biobanking] is a core competency that they have. The translational Genomics Research institution, they have very sophisticated biorepositories. That was one of the reasons why they were selected for this initial project.
Dr. Trent is the co-PI on the Atlas project, which is the project that is collecting oncology specimens around the country for [the National Cancer Institute].
Where will the consortium carry out its research? In facilities in Luxembourg, or within facilities of the American partner institutions?
It’s a combination. The goal is for knowledge transfer over the next three to five years, so that Luxembourg has the world-class sophistication to do these types of research — proteomics and the like in systems biology. Some of that will be done in the US, and Luxembourg scientists will be trained in the US, to then … re-establish themselves back in Luxembourg once the infrastructure is in place. The combination of activity will be done in the US and Luxembourg, with the goal and the plan of getting self-sustaining in Luxembourg at the end of these projects.
Any discussion at this point of how many additional people the institutions will need to carry out the research?
The specifics around the number of [full-time equivalent staffers] are still being worked out right now. And they’re being integrated into the growth plans of Luxembourg around their biotechnology initiatives, with the [Centre de Recherche Public-Santé, or Public Research Center for Health], the University of Luxembourg, and health care systems.
How will Luxembourg attempt to complement what has been done elsewhere in Europe? And to what extent is this competitive with other European countries?
They’re an incredibly sophisticated government, and they’re looking at unique and unmet needs in the healthcare system. So one of the things they want to focus on initially is molecular diagnostics, and become a center of excellence around molecular diagnostics, in order to enable the early detection of diseases. So they’re not trying to compete in deep established areas in the pharmaceutical or device areas. They’re trying to create their niche where they can take advantage of their geographic location. So they don’t see this as competitive.
These are joint projects with Luxembourg scientists and physicians working with US scientists and physicians. The disease focus and the projects were selected collaboratively. Lung cancer, for example, has emerged as an area [where] new techniques in proteomics have the physicians and scientists very optimistic that … an early diagnostic can be created. So they were developed collaboratively and complementary to where Luxembourg is heading.
You cited Luxembourg’s commitment to increasing research. Can you quantify how much that economic segment has increased in the past five years?
They’re looking to increase by percentage of GDP. I think they’re approaching 1 to 1.5 [percent], and they want to double that over the next several years, with R&D being up to 3 percent of GDP, which is consistent with the [national] strategy. And so that’s what the underpinning of this is.
How far back has Luxembourg sought to increase its presence in biotechnology?
They have research institutions in Luxembourg; they call them CRPs. And that’s been kind of their foundation. This has probably been several years in the making, and, now they’ve just accelerated that by creating these strategic alliances.
There was some concern a few years back about the level of public education in biotech, and there was talk about stepping that up. How has Luxembourg addressed the issue?
They’re putting a great deal of investment into education. The University of Luxembourg is expanding its programs, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, dramatically. They’re expanding the campus, and that is definitely one of the pillars of this strategy: To increase their education not only of the human resources talent pool within the country, but also the society. There are going to be outreach programs as well related to all of these projects.
The consortium has said Luxembourg will spend $200 million toward the projects over a three-year period. How much additional investment is that expected to leverage?
At this point, I don’t have a number on that. It’s meant to be a long-term strategy. They want to be self-sustaining within the country, so this is about knowledge transfer and long-term strategic relationships with these organizations. It will include a discussion of renewals and spinoff companies, but right now, there isn’t a number tied to it.
What role, if any, will the European Union play?
Luxembourg [works] within the region. They’re so centrally located, so [for] all these projects in lung cancer and some of the future therapeutic areas that Dr. Hood will look at, they will need to collaborate with the greater region of Belgium, France, and Germany. Luxembourg is strategically positioned right in the middle of 4 million people. They’re very close to European cities. So it’s going to be key that this is a European initiative. It has to go beyond the borders of Luxembourg.
The University of Luxembourg is the single academic research university in the country. How important was it, as a result, to bring institutes from the US into this effort?
The university’s expansion has been a recent phenomenon. Their investment in the University of Luxembourg is [because] they’re creating an institute in systems biology in the future, and that was a coincidence of the link with the Institutes for Systems Biology in Seattle with Dr. Lee Hood.
As the press release says, that’s a great synergy. But when we began this, we were not aware of their expansion programs when we were linking them. It was more about Dr. Hood’s work around personalized medicine … It was more the scientific projects themselves, about personalized medicine and Dr. [Leland] Hartwell and the Partnership for Personalized Medicine. It was a necessity to create a state-of-the-art biorepository to be able to do that project, as well as Dr. Hood’s project, which will need biospecimens as well. It was more about world-class excellence than it was about the existing infrastructure in place.
On the planned biobank, who would run the facility? A government entity? A public-private group?
It’s going to be a separate foundation that will run the IBBL. It will be funded by the government, but it will be independent.
In terms of cost, have any figures been broken out for the cost of the biobank or the other two components?
No. They’re really looking at it as a whole, not as individual projects.
Are there locations in place for any of the three proposed projects?
The two research projects — the Institute for Systems Biology, and the Commission on Lung Cancer — those would be at the CRP Santé. The ISB projects would be coordinated through the University of Luxembourg. And then the IBBL, the Integrated Biorepository Bank of Luxembourg, would be an entity to be formed and located in Luxembourg.
For the biobank, have any institutions agreed to send samples for collection?
Not as of yet. There have been some discussions, but it hasn’t been created. And there are some very good working relationships with the surrounding countries, and some very large hospital systems.
What are the next steps for the consortium partners?
They are developing implementation plans, and moving forward as aggressively as possible [to] past this announcement, and get to reach scientific milestones, and hopefully clinical applications in the next few years.
What’s the timeframe for ramping up on these three initiatives?
They want to be fully operational within six to nine months.
What’s the potential for additional US or European institutions to join any of these efforts?
I think this is a great model. We have very complementary strategies, and these chronic diseases have no borders. They are built to be long-term and sustainable relationships over time. And I think it has a very high likelihood that that’s going to happen. Luxembourg is a wonderful partner for these US institutions. These relationships are with the ministers of economy and foreign trade; culture, higher education, and research; and health. That is unprecedented. As they expand their biotechnology initiatives, it would be a strong possibility that additional relationships could be established, in the US or elsewhere.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Leading U.S. Bioscience Pioneers Enter International Collaboration with Government of Luxembourg to Accelerate Biomedical Research
[Source: TGen]- International Public-Private Initiative to Drive Innovation in the U.S. and Overseas
Three of the United States' most prominent biomedical science leaders have been tapped by the government of Luxembourg for an unprecedented international collaboration to establish a bioscience center of excellence in the heart of the European Union.
The government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has announced an ambitious plan to increase the pace of innovation based on cutting-edge research in the areas of molecular biology, systems biology and personalized medicine. The initiative will include formation of a centralized biobank/tissue repository, two major projects to further research in the field of molecular biology, which is the cornerstone of personalized medicine, and a project to demonstrate the effectiveness of new diagnostics tests for earlier detection and treatment of lung cancer.
The U.S. organizations involved in the collaboration are: The Partnership for Personalized Medicine (PPM) led by Dr. Leland H. Hartwell, director, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 2001 and president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington; The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), also in Seattle, led by Dr. Leroy Hood, president of ISB and co-founder of U.S.-based Amgen Inc.; and Arizona's Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), led by Dr. Jeffrey Trent, president and scientific director of TGen and former scientific director at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The announcement was made jointly by three branches of Luxembourg's government, the Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade, the Ministry for Culture, Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Health. The Luxembourg government is investing $200 million in the initiative, with the hope that ultimately it will improve the health of its own people by increasing the ability to administer the right drug to the right patient at the right time and in the right dose. In addition, it seeks to accelerate the global pace and integration of biomedical research, education and commercial development around the world.
The public-private initiative is expected to serve as a model for other international collaborations among partners looking to not only share research and development costs but also to gain access to each other's information, networks and markets. The Luxembourg collaboration was developed and negotiated in consultation with the global professional services organization, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and is built on an integrated approach that links research, education, healthcare and the economy.
The collaboration consists of three interrelated research initiatives that build on each other.
They include:
Build the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL)
Led by TGen, Luxembourg will launch the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg, which has the promise of becoming a premier European hub for advanced biobanking, biotechnology and biomedical informatics.
Biobanks are invaluable in bridging the gap between the pace of scientific and technological advancement and translation to clinical benefit. Most existing European and U.S. biobanks focus on simple collection and redistribution of specimens to scientists and educators. The IBBL will implement uniform standards for collection, storage and redistribution of an anticipated full range of tissue samples (e.g. blood, serum and tumor tissue). However, the added value of this next-generation biobank will be the detailed, centralized, molecular-based characterization of biospecimens, which over time (and ultimately linked to detailed clinical information) will lead to amassing an extensive database of medically relevant information.
The project will unite and leverage expertise in biology, pathology, informatics and information technology infrastructure, laboratory operations, transportation, legal matters and ethics.
Accessible to European and international colleagues, IBBL will maintain its collection of tissues in a research environment that will seek collaborations broadly within the wider research community. As such, the IBBL will serve as a centralized resource for sharing and comparing research results through a robust, scalable and secure bioinformatics system that supports the collection, processing, storage, annotation and distribution of biospecimens and data.
TGen's principal role working with Luxembourg scientists and physicians, will be to jointly develop and implement the next generation of molecular medicine through the development of the information architecture and technology implementation.
Create the Center for Systems Biology Luxembourg (CSBL)
The Institute for Systems Biology will collaborate with the University of Luxembourg to create the Center for Systems Biology Luxembourg. The Center will participate with ISB on two basic research projects designed to provide greater insight into the identification of disease and to enable more effective treatments:
ISB Research Project 1: The first project will include completion of a personalized human genome sequencing map on a minimum of one hundred subjects and development of new methods for understanding the role of genetic variations in disease, leading to new insights into diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
ISB Research Project 2: The second project is development of integrated systems proteomics, RNA and cell analysis methodology and tools based on ISB’s groundbreaking discovery of protein blood "fingerprints" and single-cell characteristics that can report on the physiological state of the body's 50 major organs. The research promises to lead to powerful early diagnostic approaches to not only treat but also predict disease and the ability to monitor the effects of existing drugs, including both effective responses or adverse reactions. ISB's role will be to apply its systems biology approaches and tools to study model organisms such as mice to determine how best to interrogate and analyze human genetic data at the DNA sequence level. New computational and mathematical tools will be developed to facilitate these large-scale genome analyses and to integrate these insights with protein blood fingerprints.
Launch the Luxembourg Project Lung Cancer
The goal of Luxembourg Project Lung Cancer is to advance research in personalized medicine by pursuing research projects to develop molecular diagnostics for specific disease. These research projects center on the selection and validation of biomarkers to more effectively diagnose and manage disease from early detection through therapeutic follow-up.
The Luxembourg project will focus specifically on lung cancer for which there are no reliable tools for early detection and for patients with advanced disease with virtually no known cures. The project also will seek to demonstrate that earlier detection and intervention can reduce healthcare costs. The initiative capitalizes on the efforts of the U.S.-based Partnership for Personalized Medicine (PPM), led by Dr. Hartwell, and will develop use of new personalized, protein-based diagnostic tools.
The Partnership will unite the efforts and capabilities of investigators at TGen and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, as well as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. Over time this effort is expected to link to a host of other research institutions and initiatives in the U.S. and beyond.
Personalized medicine focuses on improved prevention, targeted screening, early diagnosis and treatment of the causes of illness with drugs based on an individual's genetic and biological make-up, such as drugs targeted and suited to each patient. It is believed that personalized medicine will gradually take the place of conventional medicine. Ultimately, this will result in great improvements in the ability to administer the right drug to the right patient at the right time and in the right dose.
About the Institute for Systems Biology
Founded in 2000, the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is an internationally renowned, non-profit research institute headquartered in Seattle and dedicated to the study and application of systems biology. Founded by Leroy Hood, Alan Aderem and Ruedi Aebersold, ISB seeks to use systems methods to unravel the mysteries of human biology and identify strategies for predicting and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes and AIDS. ISB's systems approach integrates biology, computation and technological development, enabling scientists to analyze all elements in complex biological systems rather than one gene or protein at a time. For more information about ISB, visit http://www.systemsbiology.org/.
About the Partnership for Personalized Medicine
The Partnership for Personalized Medicine is a major healthcare research initiative that unites contributions from two leading Arizona-based philanthropic organizations: the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust and the Flinn Foundation with leadership and research capabilities from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.
About Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists and humanitarians work together to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Hutchinson Center researchers, including three Nobel Laureates, bring a relentless pursuit and passion for health, knowledge and hope to their work and to the world. For more information, visit http://www.fhcrc.org/.
About the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University
The Biodesign Institute at ASU integrates diverse fields of science to cure and prevent disease, overcome the limitations of injury, renew the environment and improve national security. By fusing research in biology, engineering, medicine, physics, information technology and cognitive science, the institute accelerates discoveries into uses that can be adopted rapidly by the private sector. For more information, visit http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/.
About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of translational research where investigators are able to unravel the genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. # # #
Contacts:
Lisa StearnsFor US organizations781-878-8882mailto:organizations781-878-8882lstearns@hubbellgroup.com
Judith MeyersFor Luxembourg contacts00352 24 78 43 49judith.meyers@eco.etat.lu
Three of the United States' most prominent biomedical science leaders have been tapped by the government of Luxembourg for an unprecedented international collaboration to establish a bioscience center of excellence in the heart of the European Union.
The government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has announced an ambitious plan to increase the pace of innovation based on cutting-edge research in the areas of molecular biology, systems biology and personalized medicine. The initiative will include formation of a centralized biobank/tissue repository, two major projects to further research in the field of molecular biology, which is the cornerstone of personalized medicine, and a project to demonstrate the effectiveness of new diagnostics tests for earlier detection and treatment of lung cancer.
The U.S. organizations involved in the collaboration are: The Partnership for Personalized Medicine (PPM) led by Dr. Leland H. Hartwell, director, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 2001 and president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington; The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), also in Seattle, led by Dr. Leroy Hood, president of ISB and co-founder of U.S.-based Amgen Inc.; and Arizona's Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), led by Dr. Jeffrey Trent, president and scientific director of TGen and former scientific director at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
The announcement was made jointly by three branches of Luxembourg's government, the Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade, the Ministry for Culture, Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Health. The Luxembourg government is investing $200 million in the initiative, with the hope that ultimately it will improve the health of its own people by increasing the ability to administer the right drug to the right patient at the right time and in the right dose. In addition, it seeks to accelerate the global pace and integration of biomedical research, education and commercial development around the world.
The public-private initiative is expected to serve as a model for other international collaborations among partners looking to not only share research and development costs but also to gain access to each other's information, networks and markets. The Luxembourg collaboration was developed and negotiated in consultation with the global professional services organization, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and is built on an integrated approach that links research, education, healthcare and the economy.
The collaboration consists of three interrelated research initiatives that build on each other.
They include:
Build the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg (IBBL)
Led by TGen, Luxembourg will launch the Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg, which has the promise of becoming a premier European hub for advanced biobanking, biotechnology and biomedical informatics.
Biobanks are invaluable in bridging the gap between the pace of scientific and technological advancement and translation to clinical benefit. Most existing European and U.S. biobanks focus on simple collection and redistribution of specimens to scientists and educators. The IBBL will implement uniform standards for collection, storage and redistribution of an anticipated full range of tissue samples (e.g. blood, serum and tumor tissue). However, the added value of this next-generation biobank will be the detailed, centralized, molecular-based characterization of biospecimens, which over time (and ultimately linked to detailed clinical information) will lead to amassing an extensive database of medically relevant information.
The project will unite and leverage expertise in biology, pathology, informatics and information technology infrastructure, laboratory operations, transportation, legal matters and ethics.
Accessible to European and international colleagues, IBBL will maintain its collection of tissues in a research environment that will seek collaborations broadly within the wider research community. As such, the IBBL will serve as a centralized resource for sharing and comparing research results through a robust, scalable and secure bioinformatics system that supports the collection, processing, storage, annotation and distribution of biospecimens and data.
TGen's principal role working with Luxembourg scientists and physicians, will be to jointly develop and implement the next generation of molecular medicine through the development of the information architecture and technology implementation.
Create the Center for Systems Biology Luxembourg (CSBL)
The Institute for Systems Biology will collaborate with the University of Luxembourg to create the Center for Systems Biology Luxembourg. The Center will participate with ISB on two basic research projects designed to provide greater insight into the identification of disease and to enable more effective treatments:
ISB Research Project 1: The first project will include completion of a personalized human genome sequencing map on a minimum of one hundred subjects and development of new methods for understanding the role of genetic variations in disease, leading to new insights into diagnosis, treatment and prevention.
ISB Research Project 2: The second project is development of integrated systems proteomics, RNA and cell analysis methodology and tools based on ISB’s groundbreaking discovery of protein blood "fingerprints" and single-cell characteristics that can report on the physiological state of the body's 50 major organs. The research promises to lead to powerful early diagnostic approaches to not only treat but also predict disease and the ability to monitor the effects of existing drugs, including both effective responses or adverse reactions. ISB's role will be to apply its systems biology approaches and tools to study model organisms such as mice to determine how best to interrogate and analyze human genetic data at the DNA sequence level. New computational and mathematical tools will be developed to facilitate these large-scale genome analyses and to integrate these insights with protein blood fingerprints.
Launch the Luxembourg Project Lung Cancer
The goal of Luxembourg Project Lung Cancer is to advance research in personalized medicine by pursuing research projects to develop molecular diagnostics for specific disease. These research projects center on the selection and validation of biomarkers to more effectively diagnose and manage disease from early detection through therapeutic follow-up.
The Luxembourg project will focus specifically on lung cancer for which there are no reliable tools for early detection and for patients with advanced disease with virtually no known cures. The project also will seek to demonstrate that earlier detection and intervention can reduce healthcare costs. The initiative capitalizes on the efforts of the U.S.-based Partnership for Personalized Medicine (PPM), led by Dr. Hartwell, and will develop use of new personalized, protein-based diagnostic tools.
The Partnership will unite the efforts and capabilities of investigators at TGen and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, as well as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. Over time this effort is expected to link to a host of other research institutions and initiatives in the U.S. and beyond.
Personalized medicine focuses on improved prevention, targeted screening, early diagnosis and treatment of the causes of illness with drugs based on an individual's genetic and biological make-up, such as drugs targeted and suited to each patient. It is believed that personalized medicine will gradually take the place of conventional medicine. Ultimately, this will result in great improvements in the ability to administer the right drug to the right patient at the right time and in the right dose.
About the Institute for Systems Biology
Founded in 2000, the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is an internationally renowned, non-profit research institute headquartered in Seattle and dedicated to the study and application of systems biology. Founded by Leroy Hood, Alan Aderem and Ruedi Aebersold, ISB seeks to use systems methods to unravel the mysteries of human biology and identify strategies for predicting and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes and AIDS. ISB's systems approach integrates biology, computation and technological development, enabling scientists to analyze all elements in complex biological systems rather than one gene or protein at a time. For more information about ISB, visit http://www.systemsbiology.org/.
About the Partnership for Personalized Medicine
The Partnership for Personalized Medicine is a major healthcare research initiative that unites contributions from two leading Arizona-based philanthropic organizations: the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust and the Flinn Foundation with leadership and research capabilities from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University.
About Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
At Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, interdisciplinary teams of world-renowned scientists and humanitarians work together to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. Hutchinson Center researchers, including three Nobel Laureates, bring a relentless pursuit and passion for health, knowledge and hope to their work and to the world. For more information, visit http://www.fhcrc.org/.
About the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University
The Biodesign Institute at ASU integrates diverse fields of science to cure and prevent disease, overcome the limitations of injury, renew the environment and improve national security. By fusing research in biology, engineering, medicine, physics, information technology and cognitive science, the institute accelerates discoveries into uses that can be adopted rapidly by the private sector. For more information, visit http://www.biodesign.asu.edu/.
About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a non-profit organization dedicated to conducting groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer, neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of translational research where investigators are able to unravel the genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency and effectiveness of the translational process. # # #
Contacts:
Lisa StearnsFor US organizations781-878-8882mailto:organizations781-878-8882lstearns@hubbellgroup.com
Judith MeyersFor Luxembourg contacts00352 24 78 43 49judith.meyers@eco.etat.lu
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