UCSF Receives $85 Million Grant for Precision Medicine

UC San Francisco's Clinical and Translational Science Institute is the recipient of an $85 million grant over five years from the National Institutes of Health to launch new initiatives related to precision medicine.

            The money will be used to better harvest data from electronic medical records so that research can be conducted more efficiently and cover a more broadly representative patient population, among other initiatives, according to officials.

            The federal government and the medical community has been anxious to push breakthroughs in precision medicine, which can create customized, often genetic-based treatments for patients with cancer and other serious diseases.

            “Our overarching goal in precision medicine is to enable data-driven, mechanism-based health and healthcare for each individual,” said Scott VandenBerg, M.D., a professor of pathology who is heading the biobanking initiative. “To do this, we need a richly annotated, centralized, searchable, Web-based biospecimen database that can be integrated with population level and other research data, as well as with electronic health records.”

            CTSI said it will also continue public health initiatives, such as efforts to reduce the consumption of sugary beverages by children in the San Francisco Bay Area and to increase colon screenings by offering them at flu shot clinics.

            “Over the past 10 years, our CTSI has been focused on accelerating research to improve health,” said Jennifer Grandis, M.D., associate vice chancellor of clinical and translational research and CTSI director. “We are committed to using these valuable NIH resources to help all UCSF investigators and trainees further that goal.”