Category Archives: Genetic Medicine

Dr. Iliyan Iliev, an assistant professor of immunology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation to study the behavior of fungi in the immune system when patients with inflammatory bowel disease are administered a form of immunotherapy.

Dr. Iliev, who is also a scientist in the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, won the foundations 2016 Breakthrough Award for his study The Role of Mycobiota During Immunomodulatory Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The foundation awarded Dr. Iliev an Innovator Award for the same study in 2015, and deemed his work worthy of further funding.

Dr. Iliyan Iliev

The Rainin Foundationprovides early support to innovative ideas, like Dr. Ilievs, that have the potential to yield major insights into predicting and preventing inflammatory bowel disease. We are pleased to continue supporting Dr. Ilievs research and see how his findings will translate into meaningful health outcomes for people living with this disease, said Dr. Laura Wilson, director of health strategy and ventures for the Rainin Foundation.

The study is one of few that explores the composition and efficacy of fungal mycobiota while patients are administered immunosuppressive drugs.

There is a group of patients who have flares even though theyre on active immunosuppression therapy, Dr. Iliev said. So what are the triggers? Thats the question were thinking about.

While some fungi are harmful, others can be beneficial to the immune system, Dr. Iliev said. By investigating fungal behavior and identifying fungal population that might be involved in disease pathology, he hopes to bring greater clarity to the pathology of inflammatory bowel disease.

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation collaborates with creative thinkers in the arts, education and health sectors. Its health program supports novel, high-risk research and facilitates collaboration among researchers to enhance and accelerate discoveries in inflammatory bowel disease.

I went this past July to their Innovations Symposium, and it was outstanding, Dr. Iliev said. They invited people who really know the field and are able to make a difference, so Im very excited to work with them.

In addition to the Breakthrough Award, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation recently awarded Dr. Iliev and colleagues from Mount Sinai a $250,000 Synergy Award to examine the composition of the fungal community in babies born to mothers with inflammatory bowel disease. The investigators hope to better understand whether fungi can be transferred from mothers to babies and potentially contribute to disease later in life.

Dr. Lotfi Chouchane, a professor of genetic medicine and of microbiology and immunology, received a Regional Scientific Excellence Award from the UAE Genetic Diseases Association during the sixth International Genetic Disorders Conference on Oct. 22 in Dubai. Dr. Chouchane was recognized for his continued work on genetic disorders.

Dr. Byron Demopoulos, an associate professor of clinical medicine, on Nov. 19 won the Cayuga Medical Center-Weill Cornell Medicine Award from Cornell Community Relations for establishing a collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine, Cayuga Medical Center and Ithaca-area physicians. Dr. Demopoulos won the award at the 2016 Town-Gown Awards in Ithaca.

Dr. Pamela Eliach, an assistant professor of medicine, on Oct. 6 was accepted into the 2017 Harvard Macy Institute Program for Educators in Health Professions. The program aims to enhance the professional development of physicians, basic scientists and other healthcare professionals as educators.

Dr. Melanie Ongchin, an assistance professor of surgery, was named a fellow of the American College of Surgeons during its convocation ceremony on Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C. The college is dedicated to improving the surgical care of patients and safeguarding standards of care in an optimal and ethical practice environment.

Dr. Heather Yeo, the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Healthcare Policy and Research/Clinical Evaluation and an assistant professor of surgery and of healthcare policy, won the James IV Traveling Scholar Award from the James IV Association of Surgeons. The association sponsors visiting fellowship opportunities for young surgeons from and to member countries. Dr. Yeos fellowship covers four weeks of travel over a two-year period and pays $15,000. She will travel to the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong and possibly Japan to study treatment controversies of rectal cancer.

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Awards and Honors Across Weill Cornell Medicine - Cornell Chronicle

[Editors note:Raymond De Vries is co-director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan. Tom Tomlinson is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and the director of the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciencesat Michigan State University.]

Personalized medicine, which involves tailoring health care to each persons unique genetic makeup, has the potential to transform how we diagnose, prevent and treat disease. After all, no two people are alike. Mapping a persons unique susceptibility to disease and targeting the right treatment has deservedly been welcomed as a new power to heal.

New technologies are allowing us to probe DNA, RNA, proteins and gut bacteria in a way that will change our understanding of health and disease. Our hope is to discover novel biological markers that can be used to diagnose and treat common chronic conditions, including Alzheimers disease, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

But when it comes to preventing the leading causes of death which include chronic diseases, genomics and precision medicine may not do as much as we hope.

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Despite the inherent limitations to the ability of genomic medicine to transform health care, medicine in the future should unquestionably aspire to be personal.Genomics and molecular biosciences will need to be used holistically in the context of a persons health, beliefs and attitudes to fulfill their power to greatly enhance medicine.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post:Soon, Medication Will be Custom Tailored to Your Specific Genetics

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For precision medicine to work, physicians must incorporate holistic health factors, like belief - Genetic Literacy Project

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Rob Metcalf, left, and Mark Harris of NextGxDx, now Concert Genetics

Lee Steffen

Say goodbye to NextGxDx and hello to Concert Genetics.

The buzzy Nashville-area health-tech company, a high-profile graduate of the city's original startup accelerator, has rebranded. The name change reflects the company's effort to bring a broader pool of stakeholders including clinicians, labs and, increasingly, health plans together (in "concert" as it were) to move genetic testing and precision medicine forward.

Rob Metcalf, left, and Mark Harris of NextGxDx, now Concert Genetics

Lee Steffen

"We've had the name NextGxDx for seven years now," Mark Harris, founder and chief innovation of the genetic-testing marketplace company, said in an exclusive interview. "I think it served its purpose well."

The company formerly known as NextGxDx, which offers a variety of tools to increase "transparency and efficiency in genetic testing," as described in a news release, was founded by Harris in 2010. The company went through accelerator-turned-investment fund Jumpstart Foundry, and is often cited as one of the program's most successful graduates and one of the area's most promising health-tech ventures.

Now called Concert Genetics, the firm offers a searchable database of genetic tests for clinicians, along with products providing information and transparency around genetic testing to hospitals and health insurers.

Last summer, Harris gave up the CEO title at the young company. Rob Metcalf, formerly president of white-hot Franklin-based cognitive computing company Digital Reasoning, took over the top executive spot a little more than seven months ago, around which time the name-change conversation began.

"We started more or less when I came on board," Metcalf said, explaining that he early on asked Harris if he'd consider a name that captured the "broader impact" of the company's work.

The name "NextGxDx" was meant to reflect the way the company represented "the next step in genomics and diagnostics," Harris said. But in the years since the company was founded, he continued, the market for precision medicine tools has grown and the company has broadened its customer base, most notably to include insurers, spurring the change.

Still, Metcalf said, the team "didn't really set out to change the name."

"We set out to figure out the strategy for growing the business," he said.

Read the original:
This well-known health-tech company has a new name - Nashville Business Journal

Dr. Iliyan Iliev, an assistant professor of immunology in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation to study the behavior of fungi in the immune system when patients with inflammatory bowel disease are administered a form of immunotherapy.

Dr. Iliev, who is also a scientist in the Jill Roberts Institute for Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, won the foundations 2016 Breakthrough Award for his study The Role of Mycobiota During Immunomodulatory Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease. The foundation awarded Dr. Iliev an Innovator Award for the same study in 2015, and deemed his work worthy of further funding.

Dr. Iliyan Iliev

The Rainin Foundationprovides early support to innovative ideas, like Dr. Ilievs, that have the potential to yield major insights into predicting and preventing inflammatory bowel disease. We are pleased to continue supporting Dr. Ilievs research and see how his findings will translate into meaningful health outcomes for people living with this disease, said Dr. Laura Wilson, director of health strategy and ventures for the Rainin Foundation.

The study is one of few that explores the composition and efficacy of fungal mycobiota while patients are administered immunosuppressive drugs.

There is a group of patients who have flares even though theyre on active immunosuppression therapy, Dr. Iliev said. So what are the triggers? Thats the question were thinking about.

While some fungi are harmful, others can be beneficial to the immune system, Dr. Iliev said. By investigating fungal behavior and identifying fungal population that might be involved in disease pathology, he hopes to bring greater clarity to the pathology of inflammatory bowel disease.

The Kenneth Rainin Foundation collaborates with creative thinkers in the arts, education and health sectors. Its health program supports novel, high-risk research and facilitates collaboration among researchers to enhance and accelerate discoveries in inflammatory bowel disease.

I went this past July to their Innovations Symposium, and it was outstanding, Dr. Iliev said. They invited people who really know the field and are able to make a difference, so Im very excited to work with them.

In addition to the Breakthrough Award, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation recently awarded Dr. Iliev and colleagues from Mount Sinai a $250,000 Synergy Award to examine the composition of the fungal community in babies born to mothers with inflammatory bowel disease. The investigators hope to better understand whether fungi can be transferred from mothers to babies and potentially contribute to disease later in life.

Dr. Lotfi Chouchane, a professor of genetic medicine and of microbiology and immunology, received a Regional Scientific Excellence Award from the UAE Genetic Diseases Association during the sixth International Genetic Disorders Conference on Oct. 22 in Dubai. Dr. Chouchane was recognized for his continued work on genetic disorders.

Dr. Byron Demopoulos, an associate professor of clinical medicine, on Nov. 19 won the Cayuga Medical Center-Weill Cornell Medicine Award from Cornell Community Relations for establishing a collaboration between Weill Cornell Medicine, Cayuga Medical Center and Ithaca-area physicians. Dr. Demopoulos won the award at the 2016 Town-Gown Awards in Ithaca.

Dr. Pamela Eliach, an assistant professor of medicine, on Oct. 6 was accepted into the 2017 Harvard Macy Institute Program for Educators in Health Professions. The program aims to enhance the professional development of physicians, basic scientists and other healthcare professionals as educators.

Dr. Melanie Ongchin, an assistance professor of surgery, was named a fellow of the American College of Surgeons during its convocation ceremony on Oct. 16 in Washington, D.C. The college is dedicated to improving the surgical care of patients and safeguarding standards of care in an optimal and ethical practice environment.

Dr. Heather Yeo, the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Healthcare Policy and Research/Clinical Evaluation and an assistant professor of surgery and of healthcare policy, won the James IV Traveling Scholar Award from the James IV Association of Surgeons. The association sponsors visiting fellowship opportunities for young surgeons from and to member countries. Dr. Yeos fellowship covers four weeks of travel over a two-year period and pays $15,000. She will travel to the United Kingdom, Australia, Hong Kong and possibly Japan to study treatment controversies of rectal cancer.

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Awards and Honors Across Weill Cornell Medicine | Newsroom ... - Cornell Chronicle

By Joanna Smith, The Canadian Press on March 1, 2017.

OTTAWA Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould wants to know whether Canadas premiers think barring insurance providers from asking clients to disclose the results of genetic testing would stray too far into provincial jurisdiction.

In a letter to Yukon Premier Sandy Silver, current chair of the group known as the Council of the Federation, Wilson-Raybould says a number of provinces have a constitutional problem with parts of Bill S-201, which would add genetic characteristics as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Given the important constitutional issues in play, we call on the Council of the Federation to communicate its views on the constitutionality of Bill S-201s proposal to regulate all contracts, agreements, and goods and services to prohibit genetic discrimination, Wilson-Raybould wrote in the letter sent Wednesday.

The insurance industry has strongly opposed that aspect of the proposed legislation, which would make it illegal for anyone to require a person to undergo genetic testing, or disclose the results of previous tests, as a condition for signing or continuing an insurance policy or any other good, service, contract or agreement.

It would also prohibit anyone from sharing the results of someones genetic testing without their written consent, although there are exceptions for physicians and researchers.

Breaking the law could mean a fine of up to $1 million, or five years behind bars.

The unusual step of seeking formal input from the provinces and territories comes after the Liberal government brought forward amendments last month to remove those parts of the bill, arguing that MPs had a duty to respect the constitutional division of powers.

That move caught the opposition off guard, prompting both the Conservatives and the NDP to note that witnesses who appeared before the House of Commons justice committee studying the bill largely agreed it was constitutional.

It also surprised Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, who has shepherded the Senate bill through the House of Commons, who said at the time the changes would essentially gut this bill.

If they are passed, they would rob it of its ability to help all Canadians and limit its effect to very few, Oliphant said Feb. 14 in the Commons.

The Conservatives and the NDP are generally supportive of the bill and Oliphant said he also has support from many of his Liberal caucus colleagues.

Wilson-Raybould said she received letters of dissent from Quebec, Manitoba and B.C., but suggested there are still other opponents.

In direct communications with me and my office, other provinces have raised doubts about this legislation but have declined to take a public position, she wrote.

She said she wants the premiers to share their views by the time debate on the bill resumes in the House of Commons next week. A final vote on the bill could come as early as March 8.

In her letter, Wilson-Raybould expressed strong support for the part of the bill that would bring genetic discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act.

The knowledge obtained by a diagnostic test could lead to early medical decisions that reduce risk to Canadians health, Wilson-Raybould wrote.

These important advantages are liable to being frustrated if Canadians avoid such tests due to fear of genetic discrimination. It is imperative that we, as a country, take proactive measures to address this emerging human rights issue.

Wilson-Raybould also urged the premiers to tackle the issue within their own jurisdictions.

I am confident that we can add the prohibition of genetic discrimination to that proud human rights heritage.

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Justice minister seeks input from premiers on genetic discrimination bill - Medicine Hat News

Gulf Times

WCM-Q study throws light on genetic medical research - Gulf Times Gulf Times A study by Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) researchers has revealed many previously unknown links between genetic variations and a series of ... and more »

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WCM-Q study throws light on genetic medical research - Gulf Times - Gulf Times