NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Cedars-Sinai has awarded $675,000 to eight of its researchers as part of a newly launched initiative promoting novel technologies and approaches for personalized medicine at the institution.
Called Cedars-Sinai Precision Health, the program aims to "drive the development of the newest technology and best research, coupled to the finest clinical practice, to rapidly deliver precise and personalized healthcare solutions," Dermot McGovern, who is directing the effort, said in a statement.
Among the recipients of the funding are Janine Bilsborough, who was awarded $100,000 to study the role of the gene TNFSF8 in inflammatory bowel disease and validate whether a variant of the gene can be used to identify patients who would respond to specific treatments; Simon Gayther, who has received $100,000 to compare the genomes of primary ovarian cancer tumors and tumors that recur after chemotherapy in order to identify new drug targets for chemoresistant disease; and Wei Yang, who was awarded $50,000 to create a large-scale proteomic library for use in biomarker discovery programs at Cedars-Sinai.
Also receiving funding are Wei Gao, who has received $100,000 to use genetic sequencing and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study predictors of developmental disorders in newborns in order to build a predictive model to enable early intervention; and Brennan Spiegel, who was awarded $100,000 to evaluate the use of remote monitoring via biosensors, biomarkers, and patient-reported outcomes for predicting adverse cardiovascular events.
Additionally, Suzanne Devkota received $50,000 to use high-throughput microculture technology to identify microbiome-based biomarkers of cancer patient response to chemoradiation therapy; Hyung Kim was awarded $100,000 to run a clinical trial testing the combination of imaging technologies for prostate cancer detection; and Beatrice Knudsen has been granted $75,000 to develop tests for measuring how well a tumor can repair its DNA following chemoradiation in order to predict the efficacy of treatment in patients.