627more clinicians, geneticists, and counselors specializing in hereditary cancer. The
Colorado Molecular Correlates laboratory at the campus will handle the samples
and testing, and is expanding to scale up for the increased number of submissions.
Some personalized medicine and genetic counseling services are already being
offered, and the center will expand upon these.
UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy
Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy (IPIT) is a collabora-
tive effort between the University of North Carolina (UNC) Eshelman School of
Pharmacy and the School of Medicine, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and
the School of Nursing, with substantial support from the Lineberger Comprehensive
Cancer Center and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. Leadership in these
key areas of research is fostered by the creation of contiguous offi ce and laboratory
space that bolsters collaborations and the development of comprehensive research
investigations and treatment tools. The mission of IPIT is to employ an interdisci-
plinary approach to tailor therapies and enable the delivery of individualized medi-
cal practice. IPIT also offers the services of facilities in molecular genomics, cellular
phenotyping, and pharmacoinformatics to add to the excellent core facilities already
existing at UNC ( http://ipit.unc.edu/ ). Pharmacogenetics for Every Nation Initiative
(PGENI) at IPIT has a mission is to help developing countries use genetic informa-
tion to improve their drug dosing decision-making process. The cost of individual
genetic testing will be prohibitive in these countries for some time, therefore, the
PGENI’s strategy is to integrate pharmacogenomics into public health decision
making without placing an extra burden on sparse healthcare funds and technology
infrastructure. IPIT is using DMET™ Plus biomarker panel (Affymetrix), which
enables genotyping of the largest and most comprehensive set of key functional
drug metabolism alleles within a single panel. The data gathered by PGENI research-
ers will help them analyze populations in the developing world for their response to
most commonly used medications. The program will initially focus on Jordan,
Mexico, India, China, Brazil, Ghana, and South Africa, and the university eventu-
ally plans to expand to more than 100 countries.
Wisconsin Genomics Initiative
In 2008, four Wisconsin-based research institutions started collaboration to form
the Wisconsin Genomics Initiative with a focus on personalized healthcare research.
The collaborators include the Marshfi eld Clinic, the Medical College of Wisconsin,
Department of Public Health, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The
institutions will combine resources to conduct research on predicting individual
susceptibility to disease, targeting personalized treatments, determining how
Role of Academic Institutions in the US