News

The new projects, which focus on drugs for depression, HIV/AIDS, cardiovascular disease and cancer, bring to 15 the total number of projects in the Global Alliance for Pharmacogenomics.

A new study reports that a gene variant carried by about a third of the population plays a major role in this group’s response to an anti-clotting medicine, clopidogrel (Plavix). People with the variant produce a defective version of the CYP2C19 enzyme and are less able to activate the drug, placing them at increased risk for dangerous events like strokes and heart attacks. 

NIGMS-supported researchers have identified a common gene variant carried by as many as a third of the population that plays a major role in determining why some people do not respond to an anti-clotting medication, Plavix.

NIGMS-supported scientists have identified inherited variations in two genes that account for 37 percent of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, including a gene that may help predict drug response.

NIGMS-funded researchers have discovered a new class of mutations linked to cases of childhood leukemia with a high risk of relapse and death.

A world wide team of researchers used computer modeling to address one of the trickiest drugs to prescribe—the blood-thinner warfarin. To test the gene-based strategy in patients, NIH is launching a large-scale clinical trial.

Scientists in the NIGMS-funded Pharmacogenetics Research Network have linked scores of genetic variations with how children respond to leukemia drugs.

U.S. and Japanese scientists expand their pharmacogenomics collaboration with five new projects.

U.S. and Japanese scientists partner to study genetic factors that influence the safety and effectiveness of medicines. 

Researchers in the NIGMS-funded Pharmacogenetics Research Network have found that differences in gene expression levels between population groups can affect how they respond to drugs or fight off specific infections.

People taking low doses of the cancer drug irinotecan need not undergo genetic testing first, say NIGMS-funded researchers.

Work by investigators affiliated with the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network has led to changes in the prescribing information of a widely used blood-thinning drug, warfarin (Coumadin).

An NIGMS-funded study has discovered variations in certain genes that make some children with leukemia susceptible to toxic side effects from common chemotherapy drugs.

The longest follow-up study ever done on children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, supported in part by NIGMS, identifies risks for survivors later in life.

NIGMS-funded researchers scanned 350,000 locations across the genome of 242 pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia to identify new mutations that contribute to this common childhood cancer.

NIGMS-funded researchers have created a computer tool to help predict which genetic mutations might affect a person's risk for cancer.

Findings made by NIGMS-supported investigators suggest that traditional cancer treatments, which base drug regimens on a tumor's anatomical location, should eventually be replaced with therapies based on a tumor's pharmacologic profile.

SRI International and the University of California, San Francisco, have been awarded $10 million to study the genetic basis for variation in response to medications for tobacco dependence. The new program will be part of the Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN).

Chances are good that a medication you take is one of several drugs that can be affected by genetic factors, according to a team of NIGMS-supported researchers.

Researchers supported through the NIH Pharmacogenetics Research Network have licensed a genetic test for patients with colorectal cancer to the Mayo Clinic. The agreement will make the test available to patients nationwide starting this month.

One of the most commonly administered drugs for breast cancer, tamoxifen, may not be as effective for women who inherit a common genetic change, according to an NIGMS-supported study.

NIGMS has awarded $10 million to researchers investigating how well anti-cancer therapies work in different patients. The funds will further work begun in 2001 as part of the NIGMS-supported Pharmacogenetics Research Network, a nationwide collaboration of scientists.

Variations in a gene involved in blood clotting may explain why certain people require a lower or higher dose to get the full benefits of the anticoagulant drug warfarin, say NIGMS-funded researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and Washington University in St. Louis.