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Precision Medicine Effort at Indiana University Gets $40M Funding Commitment

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Indiana University has announced that its Precision Health Initiative will be the first program to receive funding under the institution's $300 million Grand Challenges Program, which aims to promote research that will benefit communities across the state.

The Precision Health Initiative will receive up to $40 million from the Grand Challenges Program to develop IU's expertise in individualized precision medicine, the university said. The initiative will specifically incorporate five research clusters across IU, which will focus on genomic medicine; cell, gene, and immune therapy; chemical biology and biotherapeutics; data and informatics; and psychosocial, behavioral, and ethics research.

The program is also expected to support the creation of new gene editing and sequencing cores at the IU School of Medicine and a good manufacturing practice facility to produce cellular therapeutics, as well as a cross-campus Center for Chemical Biology and Biotherapeutics, a Precision Health Data Commons, and a Precision Health Integration and Analytics Platform. 

The Precision Health Initiative will be led by faculty from the IU School of Medicine, IU Bloomington, and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), and will work with partners including Eli Lilly, Roche Diagnostics, Cook Regentec, Deloitte, Regenstrief Institute, and IU Health. 

An estimated 40 new, full-time faculty members are expected to be hired to support the initiative, including 22 at the IU School of Medicine, 15 at IU Bloomington, and two at IUPUI. 

"Through team-based, interdisciplinary collaboration, this initiative represents an effort to overcome one of the greatest challenges facing Indiana and society: developing a comprehensive approach to individualized healthcare at every stage, from prevention to final outcomes," IU President Michael McRobbie said in a statement. "This initiative will put IU's extensive breadth and leadership of large-scale research, discovery, and innovation to work for the people of our state."