September 10, 2024 Print
A new precision medicine initiative, spearheaded by The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR), has been awarded a $3 million Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) 2023 National Critical Research Infrastructure Grant.
A collaboration between research and industry partners, the initiative, nam
ed PrecisionGO™, aims to develop end-to-end precision medicine pipelines accessible nationwide that will streamline research
discoveries from the early stages of a project, all the way through to integrating the findings into patient care. It will also offer educational programs to the general public, researchers, and clinicians to promote awareness and skill development in precision medicine.
Over five years, this $3 million grant will enable Australia’s medical research community by:
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Streamlining Biomarker Discovery: Enhanced workflows and integrated data analysis to efficiently process large-scale genomic and clinical datasets, providing insights into disease mechanisms and guiding personalised treatments.
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Advancing Clinical Trials: Identification of new patient subgroups based on genomic and environmental data, enabling more targeted and effective clinical trials.
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Enhancing Research Capacity, Capability: Access to high-end precision medicine technologies and tools to enable end-to-end precision medicine workflow for a broad range of research groups, fostering collaboration between clinical research groups and technical experts.
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Enhancing Clinical Practice: Provision of efficient data analysis tools and decision support systems for clinicians, facilitating evidence-based interventions, targeted treatments, and preventive strategies.
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Providing Precision Medicine Education and Awareness: Upskilling health professionals through precision medicine education programs, knowledge-sharing platforms, and community partnerships, promoting the adoption of precision medicine approaches.
Professor Philip O’Connell, Executive Director of WIMR, is a Chief Investigator (CI) on this grant. He says, “This MRFF grant will have a significant impact on the breadth of precision medicine-based research that can occur in Australia.
“By embedding new interventions and predictive biomarkers into healthcare, the project will lead to improved health outcomes and experiences. It is an essential step toward integrating personalised care into the healthcare system in Australia, and I am proud that PrecisionGO™ will be based here on the Westmead Health Precinct.”
Dr Xin Maggie Wang, Director of Scientific Platforms at WIMR and a CI on the grant, will oversee the PrecisionGO™ initiative. Dr Wang says, “Through collaboration, knowledge exchange, and technological innovation, PrecisionGO™ will create economic opportunities for Western Sydney and foster national advancements in precision medicine.
“To address current gaps in the precision medicine research pipeline, PrecisionGO™ will introduce four new technologies. These are high-speed, high-resolution imaging cell sorting; advanced single-cell spatial transcriptomics; high-throughput single-cell partitioning; and high-throughput digital PCR.”
While based at WIMR, PrecisionGO™ is a collaboration between a number of research and industry partners. These include Westmead Research Hub partners University of Sydney; Children’s Medical Research Institute; CSIRO; Western Sydney Local Health District; Sydney Children’s Hospital Network; NSW Health Pathology; as well as industry partners BD and Australian Genome Research Facility.
What is precision medicine?
Genomic sequencing and bioinformatics, data mining and machine learning, advanced imaging techniques and other developments are cha
nging our understanding of many diseases, and offer new approaches to diagnosis, treatments and prevention. They have also opened the door to precision medicine.
Precision medicine involves using detailed analysis of the specific characteristics of an individual’s disease, along with the individual’s unique genetic profile, to develop a treatment regime that holds the most promise for best health outcomes.
This is a paradigm shift that will see researchers pioneering medical treatments and protocols that can be personally tailored to every individual.