The UCSF Resource-based Center for the Advancement of Precision Medicine in Rheumatology (P30) will provide critically important resources and expertise to enable cutting-edge rheumatic disease research. Given the emerging opportunities related to precision medicine, in conjunction with the significant heterogeneity encompassed within the rheumatic diseases, our Center will focus on providing resources for research that seeks to define underlying etiologic heterogeneity within and across rheumatic diseases by applying new approaches and technology developed as part of the exciting field of precision medicine. UCSF represents an ideal environment for the proposed P30 Center given tremendous institutional strengths in immunology, genomics, molecular technologies, computational biology, and clinical research, including engagement of at-risk populations and racial/ethnic minorities. In addition, UCSF is recognized as a leader in clinical care of rheumatic disease patients across the age span, from childhood to old age. Further supporting the rationale for investing in our Center are the substantial resources that can be leveraged at UCSF: sub- specialty rheumatic disease clinics for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis, scleroderma, ankylosing spondylitis, and pediatric rheumatic disease; the NIH-funded UCSF Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Center (NIAMS P60) and Autoimmunity Center of Excellence (NIAID ACE); and the UCSF-Stanford Arthritis Center of Excellence. To facilitate innovative and collaborative rheumatic disease research, our Center will include: 1) a Human Subjects and Clinical Phenotyping Core co-directed by Drs. Patricia Katz and Jinoos Yazdany, which will provide centralized coordination of subject recruitment, clinical phenotyping, and clinical data collection and management (e.g., for electronic health record data, and patient or physician reported outcomes); 2) a Genomics and Molecular Resources Core, co-directed by Drs. Pui-Yan Kwok and Lindsey Criswell, which will provide centralized biospecimen processing and storage to facilitate access for more researchers and provide consultation and coordination related to acquisition of genomics and molecular phenotyping services; 3) an Integrative Bioinformatics Core, co-directed by Drs. Atul Butte and Marina Sirota, which will provide computational and analytical expertise for study design, bioinformatics analysis of clinical and molecular data, data integration and data dissemination; and 4) an Administrative Core directed by Dr. Lindsey Criswell, with Dr. Mary Nakamura as associate director, which includes an enrichment program designed to attract and support both young and experienced investigators through provision of pilot grants, a mentoring program, educational seminars, and an annual symposium. These resources will meet the stated needs of our research community and will have a major impact on advancing precision medicine research in rheumatology by providing access to research infrastructure and consultation, biospecimens with defined clinical data, and cutting-edge genomics, molecular, and computational biology tools.
The UCSF Resource-based Center for the Advancement of Precision Medicine in Rheumatology will provide investigators with access to resources, expertise, training and pilot funding to capitalize on new technologies and opportunities in precision medicine. The Center will bring together teams of scientists to study ways to better define disease subgroups that may have different etiologies, prognosis, or treatment responses. By providing Core resources to access clinical data and biospecimens along with new technologies for molecular phenotyping and bioinformatics analyses, our Center aims to improve approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of rheumatic disease.
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