Pillars of Personalized Medicine

National Jewish Health Health has launched three ground-breaking initiatives that will support its pioneering efforts to develop preventive and personalized medicine programs. They give us the potential to transform the practice of medicine from a reactive model to a proactive one. These initiatives also will allow us to provide care based on the unique characteristics of each patient.

Integrated Bioinformation and Specimen Center

The Integrated Bioinformation and Specimen Center is a centralized repository of tissue samples from throughout the institution. The samples are anonymous to protect patient privacy. However, the tissue samples are linked to information about the patient who donated them, including diagnosis, CT scans, X-rays, genetics and more. They offer a tremendous resource for researchers seeking biomarkers that can help predict if a person will get a disease, the likely course of that disease, and what medications will work for patients with that specific biomarker.

• In practice: Drs. Russ Bowler and Raul Torres recently took advantage of a repository of tissue samples to identify a protein, Arhgef1, which appears to play a role in the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Center for Genetics and Therapeutics

The Center for Genetics and Therapeutics is dedicated to understanding the genetic basis of diseases that are common in patients cared for at National Jewish Health. This new Center will build on the scientific and clinical strengths at National Jewish Health by developing programs to understand how genes work in biological systems, how genetic variants contribute to the development of disease, and why individuals with the same disease have very different results due to the treatment. These approaches will enable clinicians to develop innovative approaches to disease prevention, early diagnosis and personalized therapeutic intervention.

• In practice: National Jewish Health researchers recently identified a genetic mutation that alters the response of asthma patients to the medication albuterol. Advanced diagnostics will help determine which patients have that mutation so that physicians will know who should and should not receive that medication.

Advanced Diagnostics Programs

Our Advanced Diagnostics programs include the Institute for Advanced Biomedical Imaging™  and the Advanced Diagnostics Laboratories.

The Institute for Advanced Biomedical Imaging™ offers cutting edge-technology, including a dual-source 128-slice CT scanner, PET/CT scanner, and 1.5 Tesla MRI, in combination with some of the best chest radiologists in the world to provide the advanced diagnostics that are central to personalized medicine. National Jewish Health Health and Siemens Healthcare, manufacturer of the most advanced imaging equipment in the world, have partnered in the institute to advance their shared vision of personalized medicine. They will work together to optimize the function of the existing imaging technology and collaborate on research to improve imaging in the future.

• In practice: The combined PET/CT scanner shows chemical processes occurring inside cells as well as display three-dimensional anatomy that can pinpoint where they are occurring.

The Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories - featuring the new Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory - is essential in providing personalized laboratory diagnostic tests for the delivery of personalized medicine. This facility, often working with other diagnostic arms of National Jewish Health Health, is able to develop and make available tests that provide patients with individualized information on disease risk, drug responsiveness, and health prognosis. These “companion diagnostic” tests can be performed on samples as simple as a cheek swab or blood draw.

• In practice: Recently, the Advanced Diagnostics Laboratories launched a test that determines what form of two genes an individual has that greatly affects the dosing of warfarin, a blood-thinning medication. Results from this test help determine the effective dose of warfarin an individual should take prior to beginning treatment, allowing physicians to safely customize warfarin treatment for millions of patients.  In addition, these laboratories  have developed a mass spectrometry test that analyzes an inflammatory biomarker that assists in identifying the optimal drug treatment for newly diagnosed asthma patients.