The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Geisinger, along with the University of Washington in Seattle and Washington University in St. Louis, a $5.8 million, five-year grant to study the role of genetics in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Researchers will recruit patients with known genetic causes of neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Teams will then conduct in-depth genomic and clinical evaluations of patients and their families to determine the impact of genetics on these disorders.
The standardized data will be made available to research facilities across the country through the National Institute of Mental Health to accelerate future discoveries.
“Our understanding of the genetic causes of neuropsychiatric disorders is growing every day, but we still have a lot to learn,” said Christa L. Martin, PhD, associate chief scientific officer and director of Geisinger’s Autism & Developmental Medicine Institute.
“We can now identify a genetic cause in up to 40 percent of children with neuropsychiatric disorders. This study will gather detailed descriptions of the clinical symptoms of these individuals to discover how to improve their medical care and outcomes.”
This project is one of 500 from the National Institute of Mental Health’s newly launched Mental Health Rare Genetic Disease Network (MHRGDN), a system that includes researchers at 15 sites across the US. The grant is co-funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.
This grant will build on NIH’s efforts to improve the healthcare industry’s understanding of how genetics contribute to disease and wellness.
In June 2019, NIH announced that it would fund clinical trials to assess the efficacy and benefits of applying genomic medicine to chronic disease management.
The clinical trials will examine genomic medicine in hypertension and chronic kidney disease care among people of African ancestry, as well as depression and pain management. The trials are part of the second phase of the Implementing Genomics in Practice (IGNITE) Network, with a total investment of $42 million over five years.
“Patients of African ancestry might experience better management of high blood pressure and improved prevention of kidney disease caused by high blood pressure,” Simona Volpi, PhD, program director of IGNITE pragmatic clinical trials, said at the time.
“Treatment of depression and/or pain in patients regardless of race or ethnicity may be more effective and have fewer side effects when using a genomic approach to prescribing drugs for these conditions.”
Geisinger has also worked to further incorporate genetics and genomic data into healthcare. The health system recently made the leap to include genomic sequencing in routine clinical care to advance precision medicine research. The project has the potential to identify virtually all patients who have an increased risk of certain early onset cancers and cardiac diseases.
“Understanding the genome warning signals of every patient will be an essential part of wellness planning and health management,” Geisinger CEO and President Dr. David Feinberg said when he announced the program.
“Geisinger patients will be able to work with their family physician to modify their lifestyle and minimize risks that may be revealed. This forecasting will allow us to provide truly anticipatory health care instead of the responsive sick care that has long been the industry default across the nation.”
The funding from NIH will help Geisinger extend the benefits of genetic data to people across the country.
“This initiative allows Geisinger patients and their families to be part of something significant beyond our health system,” said David H. Ledbetter, PhD, Geisinger’s executive vice president and chief scientific officer.
“Research institutions across the US have been collecting genetic data for many years, while discussing ways to streamline the process. Through this project, we will begin to harmonize our collection of this data, which will ultimately improve the clinical care we provide to our patients.”
