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CHOP Establishes $50M Pediatric Genetics Research Initiative

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) announced today the creation of a $50 million initiative promoting pediatric genetics research in the areas of diagnostics, clinical management, patient support and consulting, and therapeutics.

Called the Roberts Collaborative for Genetics and Individualized Medicine, the program was established with a $25 million gift from Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and members of his family, and aims to integrate pediatric genetic medicine into all of CHOP's clinical departments, divisions, and centers.

Specific components of the collaborative include genetic diagnostics; clinical support and patient counseling by the newly established Roberts Individualized Medical Genetics Center; education about genetic diagnostics for patients, families, and clinicians; resident and medical student training on individualized pediatric care; informatics; and personalized therapeutics. The project will also include a research and development component focused on creating a data repository to discover rare and complex genetic traits, and translate them into clinical applications.

"We are extremely grateful to the Roberts family for this remarkable gift, which will help The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia usher in a new era of genetics and broaden the scope of genetic medicine across all clinical areas of the hospital," CHOP President and CEO Madeline Bell said in a statement. "Research is core to CHOP's mission, and growing CHOP's Research Institute is fundamental to our strategy and commitment to breakthroughs."