Spearheaded by NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences and originally funded from 2000 to 2005, the PGRN's record of success includes discoveries about medications used for such serious diseases as cancer, heart disease, and asthma. To read about more of these successes, go to http://www.nigms.nih.gov/pharmacogenetics/five-year.html .
"By showing how our genes influence our responses to medicines, the PGRN is making critical advances that will maximize the benefits of treatment while minimizing adverse side effects. This will ultimately improve patient outcomes and reduce health care costs," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD.
The network is supported by nine NIH components: NIGMS; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Cancer Institute; the National Human Genome Research Institute; the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the National Library of Medicine; the National Institute on Drug Abuse; the National Institute of Mental Health; and the Office of Research on Women's Health.
The new network consists of 12 groups, listed below alphabetically by principal investigator. Also included are the anticipated 5-year totals for each award.
The Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base ( PharmGKB )--$13.7 million provided by NIGMS, NHGRI, NHLBI, and NLM to develop and operate this online resource, which serves as a shared information library for pharmacogenetics research. To protect the privacy of research study participants, names and other identifying information are not stored in this knowledge base. (Russ B. Altman, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University School of Medicine)
To arrange an interview with NIGMS Director Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D., or Rochelle M. Long, Ph.D., director of the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network, contact the NIGMS Office of Communications and Public Liaison at 301-496-7301. For more information about the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network, go to http://www.nigms.nih.gov/pharmacogenetics/ .
NIGMS ( http://www.nigms.nih.gov ), a component of the National Institutes of Health, supports basic biomedical research that is the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)--The Nation's Medical Research Agency--includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov .