Vanderbilt Center for Undiagnosed Diseases (VCUD): Expansion of the NIH Undiagnosed Disease Program to an Undiagnosed Disease Network (UDN) will bring expertise and compassionate care to UD patients, give them hope and improve their lives. Vanderbilt is an ideal milieu for the growth and development of the VCUD, our UDN Clinical Site, because our culture fosters excellence in patient oriented care and research. We have a large and productive Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) that hosts one of the largest Clinical Research Centers (CRC) in the country. Our CTSA includes a cohort of outstanding clinicians and physician scientists whose diagnostic and research skills are broad and deep. We will combine established Vanderbilt resources including the StarPanel electronic medical record (EMR), the REDCap database system, and the BioVU DNA databank with other Vanderbilt assets to create the VCUD. The VCUD will provide the right team to make the right diagnosis for a UD patient the first time. We will then use Vanderbilt VICTR Studios and the Mass Spectrometry Research Center to discover new diseases and promote translational research that leads to new treatments. We will also test for genetic variations that we find in UD candidate genes in the >13,000, soon to be >40,000 exomes in our BioVU system that links de-identified EMRs to DNA samples from >166,000 Vanderbilt patients. Our BioVU cohort will also allow us to identify patients with phenotypic similarities to each UD, as well as, the Rare Diseases (RD) and New Diseases (ND) that may be included in a specific UD. We will then use the BioVU data and DNAs to determine the contribution of notable allelic variants found in VCUD patients to more general phenotypes that may be more common. We have experience with and a passion to diagnose, treat and care for UD patients at Vanderbilt and we look forward to creating a VCUD that brings hope and resolution to desperate situations and fosters synergistic collaboration with the UDN. The VCUD will contribute to the UDN by becoming a clinical arm of the Human Genome Project that efficiently screens, invites, evaluates, diagnoses, counsels and assists UD patients and their physicians in maximizing the quality of their lives. To develop the VCUD we will use unique resources at Vanderbilt that will efficiently diagnose UD patients of all ages and foster development of the UDN by the following Specific Aims: 1) Improve the diagnosis and care of pediatric and adult UD patients using the right VCUD team to make the right diagnosis the first time using ResearchMatch, StarPanel and REDCap; 2) Determine the etiology of UD by collecting and sharing data with the UDN; and determine the pathophysiology, and develop better diagnostic and treatment options, including clinical trials by using VICTR Studios to focus multiple Vanderbilt resources on UD; and 3) Use the Vanderbilt Mass Spectrometry Research Center, BioVU repository and VANGARD to discover, characterize and determine the contributions of both new diseases and atypical presentations of rare diseases to the Undiagnosed Diseases that affect many patients.

Public Health Relevance

The Vanderbilt Center for Undiagnosed Disease will function in the NIH funded Network of Undiagnosed Diseases to evaluate persons afflicted with undiagnosed illnesses and to share information with the Network that will best ensure that an accurate and timely diagnosis can be made, that counseling and advice be given to the patient and care givers, and that newly described diseases be appropriately studied and researched in order to improve health of the patient and to assist in diagnosing and treating similar patients in the whole human population.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
Type
Research Project--Cooperative Agreements (U01)
Project #
5U01HG007674-05
Application #
9251668
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHG1-HGR-P (J1))
Program Officer
Wise, Anastasia Leigh
Project Start
2014-07-01
Project End
2018-03-31
Budget Start
2017-04-01
Budget End
2018-03-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
$2,093,452
Indirect Cost
$687,355
Name
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Department
Type
Independent Hospitals
DUNS #
079917897
City
Nashville
State
TN
Country
United States
Zip Code
37232
Sivley, R Michael; Sheehan, Jonathan H; Kropski, Jonathan A et al. (2018) Three-dimensional spatial analysis of missense variants in RTEL1 identifies pathogenic variants in patients with Familial Interstitial Pneumonia. BMC Bioinformatics 19:18
Splinter, Kimberly; Adams, David R; Bacino, Carlos A et al. (2018) Effect of Genetic Diagnosis on Patients with Previously Undiagnosed Disease. N Engl J Med 379:2131-2139
Pomerantz, Daniel J; Ferdinandusse, Sacha; Cogan, Joy et al. (2018) Clinical heterogeneity of mitochondrial NAD kinase deficiency caused by a NADK2 start loss variant. Am J Med Genet A 176:692-698
Cassini, Thomas A; Robertson, Amy K; Bican, Anna G et al. (2018) Phenotypic heterogeneity of ZMPSTE24 deficiency. Am J Med Genet A 176:1175-1179
Ramoni, Rachel B; Mulvihill, John J; Adams, David R et al. (2017) The Undiagnosed Diseases Network: Accelerating Discovery about Health and Disease. Am J Hum Genet 100:185-192
Zastrow, Diane B; Zornio, Patricia A; Dries, Annika et al. (2017) Exome sequencing identifies de novo pathogenic variants in FBN1 and TRPS1 in a patient with a complex connective tissue phenotype. Cold Spring Harb Mol Case Stud 3:a001388
Shashi, Vandana; Pena, Loren D M; Kim, Katherine et al. (2016) De Novo Truncating Variants in ASXL2 Are Associated with a Unique and Recognizable Clinical Phenotype. Am J Hum Genet 99:991-999
Bashamboo, Anu; Donohoue, Patricia A; Vilain, Eric et al. (2016) A recurrent p.Arg92Trp variant in steroidogenic factor-1 (NR5A1) can act as a molecular switch in human sex development. Hum Mol Genet 25:3446-3453
Chen, Xinping; Talati, Megha; Fessel, Joshua P et al. (2016) Estrogen Metabolite 16?-Hydroxyestrone Exacerbates Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptor Type II-Associated Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Through MicroRNA-29-Mediated Modulation of Cellular Metabolism. Circulation 133:82-97
Kropski, Jonathan A; Pritchett, Jason M; Zoz, Donald F et al. (2015) Extensive phenotyping of individuals at risk for familial interstitial pneumonia reveals clues to the pathogenesis of interstitial lung disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 191:417-26

Showing the most recent 10 out of 16 publications