July 22, 2008
$3M Stage I Project Aims to Improve Personalized Medicine for Patients
Grand Rapids, MI (July 22, 2008) – Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) is one of nine top U.S. institutions collaborating on the newly-formed Ivy Genomics-Based Medicine Project (Ivy G.B.M. Project). The goal of the project is to identify how brain tumors with different genetic features respond to different treatment regimens to ultimately provide physicians with the tools they need to offer patients personalized medicine - the most effective treatment options based on the specific genetic profile of their tumor.
“Personalized medicine represents the future of healthcare” said VARI Scientific Investigator and Director of the Program of Translational Medicine, Craig Webb, Ph.D. “In 2007, VARI established the Compassionate Care Protocol to gather and analyze molecular data on tumors from local patients with a wide variety of cancers and identify potential combinations of drugs on a patient-by-patient and disease-by-disease basis. Through the Ivy G.B.M. Project, we can take our research and concepts to the next level in a focused disease, and explore the potential of this treatment strategy on a national scale.”
The project is funded by the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation (Ivy Foundation), a newly formed family foundation dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for patients with brain tumors.
“Currently, all patients get basically the same treatment without taking into account the genetic profile of their tumor,” said Catherine Ivy, Founder of the Ivy Foundation. The project will categorize tumors by molecular profiling and, for the first time in brain cancer research, test each tumor against a wide spectrum of treatments to match differences in response with the profiles.
The $3,000,000 Ivy G.B.M Project grant was awarded to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), which will coordinate and manage the two-stage project spanning four to five years. Stage I will start immediately and researchers will be working on an aggressive 18-month timeline with clear milestones and deliverables. Real-time collaborative linkage and project-specific communication between the nine participating organizations are provided through the support of 5AM Solutions of Reston, Virginia.
“Researchers will be able to compare results across institutions on a diverse set of tumors and treatment regimen response patterns,” said Michael Berens, Ph.D., who is serving as the project leader from TGen. “The size, scope and potential impact this project will have for patients with brain cancer is simply huge.”
The successful completion of Stage I will form the basis for funding Stage II, a clinical trial for patients with recurrent GBM. Other institutions collaborating on the Ivy G.B.M. Project Phase One include: Ohio State University, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of California, San Francisco, Henry Ford Hospital, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota), and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
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Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996, Van Andel Institute is an independent research organization dedicated to preserving, enhancing and expanding the frontiers of medical science, and to achieving excellence in education by probing fundamental issues of education and the learning process.