School of Pharmacy center attracts $4.5 million RC2 ARRA grant
VCU School of Pharmacy’s Center for Biomarker Research and Personalized Medicine has received a $4.5 million “Grand Opportunities” (RC2) grant to detect schizophrenia methylation markers.
The grant was awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health through the 2009 American Recovery Reinvestment Act. Principal investigator is Edwin Van den Oord, a professor at VCU School of Pharmacy and director of the school’s Center for Biomarker Research and Personalized Medicine.
The RC2 is the largest ARRA research grant awarded to the university and comes on top of another ARRA grant awarded the center by the National Human Genome Research Institute for developing novel statistical methods to design biomarker studies in the most cost-effective way.
The first stage of this project, said Van den Oord, involves a whole-genome search for methylation markers associated with schizophrenia, a devastating neuropsychiatric illness. To minimize false discoveries due to technical and sampling errors, the most promising methylation markers will be followed up in a second independent case-control sample using a different technology. Samples used in the project were collected at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Van den Oord will do the research with Karolina Aberg and other members of his VCU School of Pharmacy research team.
“DNA methylation studies are really an exciting new direction in genetics,” he said.
This is because methylation is directly related to gene expression and can shed a unique light on disease mechanisms. Methylation sites are also excellent new drug targets. And because methylation markers are accessible at the stable DNA level, they are potentially easy to use in clinical settings to improve diagnosis and individualize drug treatment.
The Center for Biomarker Research and Personalized Medicine has been in operation since 2006. The center’s mission is to develop and apply novel methods to identify and use biomarkers that will improve understanding of disease and tailor medication use in patients to enhance efficacy and minimize toxicity.
For more on the center, including other current research, click here.
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