View this page " 9-7-2010: NIH EXPANDS KEY PHARMACOGENOMICS RESOURCE"

[Rick Bevins]

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From: NIH news releases and news items [mailto:NIHP...@LIST.NIH.GOV]
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Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 9:57 AM
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Subject: NIH EXPANDS KEY PHARMACOGENOMICS RESOURCE

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)
<http://www.nigms.nih.gov/>
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, September 7, 2010

CONTACT:
Alisa Machalek, 301-496-7301, <e-mail:Alisa.m...@nih.gov>

NIH EXPANDS KEY PHARMACOGENOMICS RESOURCE

To help advance research on how genes affect responses to medicines,
the
National Institutes of Health is spending $15 million over five years
to
expand a key resource, the Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base (PharmGKB),
http://www.pharmgkb.org/.

The goal of pharmacogenomics is to use information about a patient's
genetic
make-up to optimize his or her medical treatment. As the field has
grown, so
has PharmGKB. Begun in 2000 to catalog links between human genetic
variation
and drug responses, the PharmGKB website is now a centralized hub that
collects, analyzes and integrates data for national and international
research consortia. All information in PharmGKB is carefully curated,
meaning it is annotated and cross-referenced with related research
data.

"PharmGKB is a trusted source for curated knowledge about
pharmacogenomics,"
said Jeremy M. Berg, director of the National Institute of General
Medical
Sciences (NIGMS), which administers the PharmGKB grant. "It plays a
critical role in moving us closer to the goal of personalized
prescriptions,
meaning each patient receives a safe and effective drug dose based on
his or
her individual characteristics."

PharmGKB, which is freely available to the scientific community,
identifies
biochemical pathways influenced by specific drugs and provides
detailed
summaries of key genes that influence a person's response to a broad
array
of medicines. PharmGKB also includes six staff scientists and six
software
engineers who conduct research, collaborate with other investigators
and
build the software infrastructure supporting PharmGKB.

In a 2009 study
(http://www.nigms.nih.gov/News/Results/Warfarin02182009.htm),
PharmGKB
researchers, together with scientists from Europe, Asia, South America
and
the Middle East, were able to utilize patients' genetic information to
better predict their optimal doses of warfarin, a widely used blood
thinner
that is tricky to dose. The concept of using genotyping in this way is
now
being tested in a large-scale clinical trial
(http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00839657) sponsored by the
NIH's
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

PharmGKB and other scientists also analyzed a person's entire genome
(http://www.nigms.nih.gov/News/Results/genomemedia_042910.htm), to
identify
variations associated with disease risk and adverse drug reactions.

During the next five years, PharmGKB plans to:
-- Develop tools that automatically extract information from the
biomedical
literature and key databases.
-- Intensify its focus on understanding the molecular basis for drug
toxicity and multiple-drug interactions, information that may help
improve
the safety and efficacy of medicines.
-- Analyze the genomes of additional individuals, including a family
that
has volunteered to be studied.
-- Develop guidelines for doctors about the use of genetic tests to
customize dosages when prescribing certain medicines.

"PharmGKB has become a powerful resource not only by providing high-
quality
information, but also by bringing researchers together to share ideas
and
collaborate," said Rochelle M. Long, Ph.D., who directs
pharmacogenomics
research programs at NIGMS. "We anticipate that such collaborations
will
continue to grow for the next five years."

PharmGKB is part of a broader NIH pharmacogenomics initiative that
includes
individual research projects and a nationwide research consortium, the
NIH
Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN). New PGRN grants are also
being announced at this time.

To learn more about PharmGKB, visit <http://www.pharmgkb.org/>.
To learn more about the NIH Pharmacogenomics Research Network, visit
http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Initiatives/PGRN/.

NIGMS is a part of NIH that supports basic research to increase our
understanding of life processes and lay the foundation for advances in
disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. For more information on
the
Institute's research and training programs, see <http://
www.nigms.nih.gov>.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical
Research
Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal
agency
for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational
medical
research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for
both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its
programs,
visit <www.nih.gov>.

##

This NIH News Release is available online at:
<http://www.nih.gov/news/health/sep2010/nigms-07a.htm>.

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