NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) –Vanderbilt University Medical Center yesterday announced it has received a five-year $12.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for a new phamacogenomics research center.
Vanderbilit received the so-called "P50" grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences' Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN) to establish a specialized research center for pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine.
Vanderbilt faculty members Dan Roden, Josh Denny, and Elizabeth Phillips are the co-principal investigators for the grant.
"Our goal is to understand the fundamental mechanisms putting patients at risk for severe adverse drug reactions," Roden said in a statement. "The studies we will conduct use state-of-the-art technologies in genomics, stem cell biology, and phenome scanning in the electronic medical record."
The grants are "key elements" of the PGRN, comprising research groups looking into how an individual's genes affect his or her response to therapy, NIGMS' Rochelle Long, who directs the program, said. Under the Vanderbilt PRGN, Roden has delved into response to arrhythmia drugs. His research under the new grant will compare heart cells from patients with and without abnormal heart rhythms.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital also was awarded a grant from NIGMS under the program to establish a new personalized medicine center and a pharmacogenomics implementation group.