Genomics and microfluidics for precision medicine
Are we in the exponential phase of advancing towards precision medicine? Recent articles in Nature suggest that we are but it depends on how we approach the next 5-10 years.
A recent publication in Nature shows how genomics can be used for precision medicine in treating breast cancer.
It seems that this kind of news is a long time coming. It’s been 18 years since the end of the human genome project.
Yet, it is good news.
Are we now going to see the exponential rise of precision medicine?
What this means for patients: This could be the beginning of an era of the right drug for the right patient at the right time.
Earlier this year Nature published a perspective on using microfluidic systems (organ on chip) for precision medicine. The authors point out that genomics is unlikely to be able to encompass all the complexity that is needed to achieve truly precise treatments.
What this means for translational research: It is likely that the future will include functional diagnostics achieved through organ-on-the-chip models with a patient’s own cells in the clinic to determine what treatment he or she will get. How fast we get there will be determined by research in the next 5-10 years and how well everyone comes together to solve innovation bottlenecks that will hold the field of precision medicine back.
The implications are that the future of precision medicine will combine different omics, digital health, and functional diagnostics. It will in other words it will take multiple disciplines working together to make it happen.
What this means for biotech companies: Both biotech companies developing new therapies and those developing new diagnostics need to think ‘collaborate’ more than ‘compete’. It’s the solutions that integrate with an array of other technologies that will have an advantage.
It should not have taken 18 years for headlines to be heralding the arrival of genomics-based precision medicine for breast cancer.
Reducing the translational gap is the vision that drives us at BioSci Consulting. This is why we are building translational ecosystems, where the types of collaborations that are needed to realize fundamental differences in how medicine is practiced.
Join an ecosystem.
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(1) Andre, F., Filleron, T., Kamal, M. et al. Genomics to select treatment for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Nature (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05068-3
(2) Ayuso, J.M., Virumbrales-Muñoz, M., Lang, J.M. et al. A role for microfluidic systems in precision medicine. Nat Commun 13, 3086 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30384-7
Unanticipated synergies in the first meeting of Precision Medicine BioPharmaX
The very first meeting of the Precision Medicine BioPharmaX was held today. Despite being in the middle of the holiday season, there was strong attendance and a good discussion.
Image produced by the winner of the U-BIOPRED art contest.
The very first meeting of the Precision Medicine BioPharmaX was held today. Despite being in the middle of the holiday season, there was strong attendance and a good discussion.
We did have a brief discussion about the European Innovation Council’s Pathfinder call: Towards the Healthcare Continuum: technologies to support a radical shift from episodic to continuous healthcare. There is interest in developing a proposal. What was remarkable was how, despite the limited time, unexpected synergies emerged, such as considering the link between viral challenge studies and nasal epithelial cell 3D models.
How will this narrow the translational gap? When different disciplines and stakeholders come together as they do in BioPharmaX ecosystems, unanticipated synergies emerge. When you have a clear path toward making those synergies concrete it can result in rapid advancements that can be much faster than traditional incremental innovation.
The next step for Precision Medicine BioPharmaX is the development of a strategic plan for advancing precision medicine. This is meant to be a framework for deciding the direction and the types of projects the ecosystem should pursue.
What happens if we don’t do this? Strategic planning has been shown to improve organizational effectiveness, specifically in achieving goals. The big goal we hope to achieve is the realization of the benefits of achieving precision medicine.
We are seeking new members and partners for Precision Medicine BioPharmaX. If you think your organization would fit into this ecosystem let us know. email us.
Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) and precision medicine
Picture of the results of a poll taken during the IHI kick-off and brokerage event where the audience was asked what they thought the top priorities for IHI funding should be.
I attended the kick-off meeting of the Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) on Tuesday. One of the things they did in the plenary session is to poll the audience as to the priority areas for IHI call topics. As you can see from the resulting word cloud “precision medicine” came out as one of the top priorities. It is somewhat of a synchronicity as I was working on the webpage for the Precision Medicine BioPharmaX on Monday.
The common interest speaks to the fact that precision medicine is one of those concepts that have been around for quite some time, yet we have been unable to achieve their full realization in the life sciences and healthcare. Some of this delay may simply be that there has not been enough time for the science to mature.
However, life sciences and healthcare innovation is a complex endeavour that requires multiple disciplines and multiple stakeholders. Which is one of the reasons why we are creating Precision Medicine BioPharmaX.
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BioPharmaX is a concept partnerships that span multiple initiatives and disease domains that can drive an exponential pace of innovation in the life sciences and healthcare. You can learn more about it here
A robust list of ongoing projects making use of U-BIOPRED data
U-BIOPRED project Coordinators update 3/6/2022
U-BIOPRED project Coordinators update 3/6/2022.
Biobank: The efforts to move the biobank from Manchester to the AZ continue with contracting, sample audits and planning. This will help secure the biobank resource for future use. The plan is to have the move occur in September.
Seminars: The seminars in June will focus on reviewing ongoing projects. In total when you add in the accelerant projects there are 64 ongoing projects. Not everyone has responded to the request to send in their projects. This underscores the value of the U-BIOPRED dataset and more importantly the value of working together. The best papers happen when people join ongoing efforts by adding in their technique, additional data, or expertise. The papers most likely to get published combine the methods and techniques from multiple different sources to answer multiple research questions.
On June 16th and 30th we will have a review and presentations of the projects on the list. They will also be an opportunity for you to discuss the projects, offer your help for existing projects, or propose new ones.
Data work: Nazanin from Imperial College is working to check with platform leads to assure that the datasets are in order and that all datasets are present. This will lead to an update of the tranSMART database
TranSMART Masterclass: The next Masterclass will be an exploratory analysis looking at the transcription-associated clusters (TACS) in blood with the bronchial brushing and biopsy data. The date will be determined sometime in September. Let us know if you are interested in this Masterclass so we can try to align it with your schedule.
C-Path and IMI regulatory input: There are ongoing discussions with the C-Path and IMI about the U-BIOPRED approach and dataset.
Do you know of an organisation that would benefit from these types of meaningful interactions? U-BIOPRED is part of the Precision Medicine BioPharma X distributed translational ecosystem? Email us here to find out more.