PHILADELPHIA — Stephen E. Kimmel, MD, MSCE, professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to help find new approaches to implement genomic findings into clinical practice.
Four grants totaling more than $12.8 million for four years were awarded to Penn Medicine, Mount Sinai, Duke University and University of Florida, as part of the NHGRI's Genomic Medicine Pilot Demonstration Projects (GMPDP) program.
Most see genomics as the key to major advances in disease diagnostics, treatment and prevention. But for many, how to best use this information in a healthcare setting remains challenging. The GMPDP program is designed to address such challenges and help find solutions.
Penn Medicine will serve as the Coordinating Center to ensure that the various institutions collaborate, share data and insights, and, in the end, come up with more generalizable results that can be used in a wider application.
"A collaborative, strategic, and rigorous approach to addressing the barriers and applying solutions to genomic implementation is required to maximize its public health impact," said Dr. Kimmel. "We'll work together with each of the centers, and collect information that the sites need to answer larger questions about this implementation and help establish a framework that can apply to the use of genomics more broadly."
The coordinating center team will also pay special attention to the developing ethical, social and legal implications of implementing genomics into medicine and patient care.
"Groups around the country have begun to explore the use of genomic medicine, and many have been studying new ways to take genomic results and implement them into electronic medical records and clinical care," said Heather Junkins, NHGRI health science analyst. "We're still learning the best ways to do this and putting together a funded consortium of investigators allows people to network, develop best practices and disseminate information."
The four-year awards total $2.6 million in the first year, and if funding remains available, approximately $12.8 million overall. Dr. Kimmel's grant (HG007266) is for $1.6 million for four years.
For more information on this pilot program, please read the full feature story on genome.gov.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.