Logo

Quebec Starts Genomic Databank for Blood Transfusion Safety

Dec 21, 2007
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Two Canadian non-profit organizations in Québec announced this week that they have created a permanent database of genomic information of about 22,000 blood donors in order to help make transfusions safe for patients in the province.
 
The partners, Héma-Québec and Génome Québec, have created a database that will help locate compatible blood more easily for patients who are in need of transfusions of specific blood profiles.
 
Genome Québec provided the genotyping to develop the platform, and the project included the efforts of the Montreal Heart Institute Pharmacogenomics Center.
 
“Working with Génome Québec enabled us develop this technology much more quickly by acceding to extensive expertise in high throughput automated genotyping and to the necessary equipment,” said Héma-Québec President and CEO Francine Décary.
 

Breaking News
The Scan

Drug Response Variants May Be Distinct in Somatic, Germline Samples

Based on variants from across 21 drug response genes, researchers in The Pharmacogenomics Journal suspect that tumor-only DNA sequences may miss drug response clues found in the germline.

Breast Cancer Risk Gene Candidates Found by Multi-Ancestry Low-Frequency Variant Analysis

Researchers narrowed in on new and known risk gene candidates with variant profiles for almost 83,500 individuals with breast cancer and 59,199 unaffected controls in Genome Medicine.

Health-Related Quality of Life Gets Boost After Microbiome-Based Treatment for Recurrent C. Diff

A secondary analysis of Phase 3 clinical trial data in JAMA Network Open suggests an investigational oral microbiome-based drug may lead to enhanced quality of life measures.

Study Follows Consequences of Early Confirmatory Trials for Accelerated Approval Indications

Time to traditional approval or withdrawal was shorter when confirmatory trials started prior to accelerated approval, though overall regulatory outcomes remained similar, a JAMA study finds.