May 21, 1999

Task force unveils plans for Partnerswide genetics center

As researchers across the country seek to identify the 100,000 genes present on the double helix known as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), some 70 physicians and researchers spanning clinical and bench research throughout Partners are building the framework for a Comprehensive Center for Human Genetics.

The center, which is expected to roll out pilot studies as soon as 2001, is meant to support Partners' role as a world leader in the evolving medical practice of genetic medicine when the government-funded Human Genome Project is completed in 2003. To date, more than 30,000 genes have been mapped, and of those, there are about 10,000 for which the function is known.

"It is expected that discoveries from genomic research will revolutionize medicine," says Victor Dzau, MD, director of Research and chairman of Medicine at BWH, who has led the effort along with Edward Harlow, PhD, scientific director of the MGH Cancer Center and professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School. "Partners is in a unique position to lead the revolution because it has the far-reaching clinical practice and patient population to draw from, as well as a strong capacity to draw on researchers from various areas and target all diseases — common or rare."

A Partners Genetics Task Force report, released last fall, identifies criteria for the center, along with work to be undertaken by five work groups that will establish the infrastructure and the boundaries of such a center.

Much work has already been accomplished in genetics by Partners researchers, including James Gusella, PhD, director of the MGH Neurogenetics Unit and Genomics Core Facility, who identified the gene for Huntington's and neurofibromatosis diseases, and BWH's Christine Seidman, MD, who mapped gene mutations in families affected by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The center will span both the MGH and BWH campuses, and provide for all researchers and clinicians throughout the system to access materials, technology and databases needed to enhance their investigations and clinical practice. The comprehensive center will address professional and patient education, clinical practice and ethical issues.

The center will be introduced in five phases over five years, with planning and organization in the first year; a pilot phase including education programs, a referral service and disease-specific pilot studies in the second year; a launch phase, entailing the opening of the center in the third year; and ongoing research and program implementation in the fourth and fifth years.

Task force members leading workgroups:

• Mark Fishman, MD, MGH
• James Gusella, PhD, MGH
• Robert Handin, MD, BWH
• Christine Seidman, MD, BWH
• Katherine Sims, MD, MGH
• Scott Weiss, MD, BWH