NEW YORK, May 29-Craig Venter's Center for the Advancement of Genomics is collaborating with Duke University Medical Center to generate predictive and prognostic data to enable earlier detection and intervention for specific diseases, the two organizations announced today. The so-called "genomic-prospective medicine collaboration" among medical, scientific, technology and bioethichs teams from both centers, aims to determine how genomic technology can best be applied clinically to improve health.
Focusing on cardiovascular, hematologic, and infectious diseases and cancer, the partnership will also explore design of future clinical practice models, and ethical and legal issues. Other goals include integrating "high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies and state of the art analysis with distinctive medical expertise" by re-sequencing and genotyping relevant genetic material of patients selected from Duke's clinical population, and leveraging a high-end computing center currently under construction at TCAG, in Rockville, Md.
Venter called the collaboration "the first extensive step toward my long-term goal of enabling everyone to participate in the genomics revolution."