Welcoming a New Era of Research
A more individually-focused approach to health care
Each of us is a product of genetic inheritance, a revised edition of generations past. Though we are remarkably similar as a species — with 99.9% identical DNA from person to person — individually we are coded with the instructions of variety.
When it comes to our health, we are each a unique minority, yet we are limited by a majority approach to health care. With all good intentions, medications are developed for the masses rather than for individuals, joint replacements are created based on average needs, medical treatments are determined by overall outcomes for the majority of the population, and clinical trials are randomized. It’s the only way we’ve known.
What if it didn’t need to be this way? What if we could inject individuality into more health care equations? What if there were a way to directly translate personal genetic discoveries in the lab into individualized trials and treatments?
Identifying the genetic components of health and disease
Scripps Genomic Medicine is bridging the gap between discovery, translation and treatment. It begins by discovering and defining the genes that underlie susceptibility to disease.
There are more than 20,000 genes within 3.1 billion coding letters in the human genome. Scientists have identified millions of locations where the single-base DNA differences occur in humans. Scientists have also identified the function for more than 50% of the genes discovered to date.
When you pair these two major series of findings together, the potential is great to revolutionize the processes of finding DNA sequences associated with such common diseases as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cancers.
This is currently presenting an incredible challenge for physicians and scientists around the world. With so many variables, how do you go about identifying which marker on what gene in which chromosome impacts a specific disease? Often times it’s been by accident; scientists were thinking they’d find one thing and discovered something completely different.
The key is narrowing down which genes and which markers are worth looking at and why. Real progress depends not on educated guesses, but on specific, quality genetic information and expert analysis.
Developing a more personalized approach
Scripps Genomic Medicine is on the road to discovery. In collaboration with Scripps Translational Science Institute, we are creating a landmark biorepository for genetic research and study – a biological warehouse of genetic information. Working hand-in-hand with volunteers from the more than half million individual patients we care for each year, Scripps is genotyping and storing genetic data on thousands of individuals of diverse ancestry.
Once cataloged, the genetic information can be used to identify and better define those genes that play vital roles in human health, disease and medical conditions. As more and more data are collected, the opportunity to identify the genetic patterns of disease expands. Taken directly into drug discovery programs and gene-specific clinical trials, this knowledge will help to individualize treatment, personalize the experience and fine-tune health care as we know it.
A new era of research has begun.