Investigators:
Carleton Garrett, M.D., Ph.D. (Principal Investigator), Virginia
Commonwealth University
Gordon Ginder, M.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
James Cooper, M.D., INOVA
Anthony Guiseppi-Elie, ScD., Dept. of Chemical Engineering;
Director of the VCU Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors and Biochips
Vikas Chandhoke, Ph.D., George Mason University
Greg Buck, Ph.D., Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology; Director
of the Center for the Study of Biological Complexity, VCU Life Sciences
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), George Mason University
(GMU) and INOVA Health System are collaborating on a three-year
genomics research project to identify and validate gene targets
and develop possible proprietary cancer diagnostic chips.
These diagnostic biochips are expected to enable customized
treatment for cancer patients based on their personal genome.
The $ 6.0 million program, supported by the Virginia Department
of Planning’s Commonwealth Technologies Research Fund
(CTRF) ($ 3.0 million over three years) brings together clinicians
and researchers in pathology, cancer research, bioengineering
and bioinformatics into an integrative program that includes
biorepository development, RNA expression profiling using
DNA microarray technologies as well as database design and
development.
Recently, new technologies
such as microarray analyses have become available which can
simultaneously evaluate the thousands of instructions that
are present in normal and cancer cells. If a cancer cell is
able to alter its instructions and thereby its behavior and
in doing so escape the effect of a given therapeutic treatment,
we are at least in a position to identify its new instructions
and these new instructions can become the targets of new therapeutic
agents and treatments.
Using various DNA expression profiling technologies at VCU
and GMU, the research team will attempt to identify genes
from cells and tissues that are dysfunctional in varied human
cancers. These will be integrated with existing clinical databases
to establish a unique resource for future genomic analysis
projects.
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