Institute for Precision Medicine

UPMC Enterprises, the innovation, commercialization, and venture capital arm of UPMC, hosted the Top of Mind Summit: Life Sciences at the Center for Connected Medicine in September - bringing together over 100 health care executives for a two-day conference focused on the emerging challenges and opportunities in the #lifesciences and health care sectors.    During the Summit, four key themes emerged, emphasizing the importance of collaborations between health care systems, academia, and industry to foster innovation and advance health care access and equity. Key Summit Themes ⤵️   · Patient-centric solutions connecting diverse stakeholders  · The growing role of AI in health care  · Enhancing clinical trials for greater impact  · Improving accessibility and affordability in health care delivery For valuable insights on how industry stakeholders can work together to make innovation accessible, affordable, and equitable for everyone, download the Summit recap report. https://lnkd.in/dKihgKHT

Congratulations, Dr. Philip Empey!

The ‘Progress programme’ in England has led to prescription changes for 25% of participants based on genetic testing results. This pioneering study, led by the The University of Manchester, highlights the crucial role of #pharmacists in interpreting #geneticresults and guiding treatment. Learn more in the article here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e7FF2r2E

Congratulations to Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, the 2024 AACR Distinguished Lectureship in Breast Cancer Research awardee! Dr. Oesterreich is the Shear Family Foundation Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology at the University of Pittsburgh and coleader of the Cancer Biology Program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. Oesterreich’s groundbreaking contributions in translational breast cancer research that have advanced the scientific understanding of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) of the breast. Her work has led to an international paradigm shift within the research, clinical, and patient advocacy communities to recognize ILC as a distinct biological entity among breast cancers. These achievements emphasize the award’s criteria for outstanding research that inspires new perspectives on the etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of breast cancer. 👏 https://lnkd.in/ezn64G6t

This article from Technical.ly highlights Pittsburgh’s strengths in AI, health tech, and robotics. IPM is proud to play a part in supporting advancements in life changing medicine at UPMC and the research and application of digital health technology and AI innovation conducted by the Center for Connected Medicine and UPMC Enterprises. Read the full article here to learn how Pittsburgh is positioned for success on a national stage. https://lnkd.in/eQAFWqih

Afshin Beheshti (University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine) developed a machine learning tool that predicts which microRNAs a drug might interact with by analyzing the chemical similarities to the drug's known biological targets. Beheshti notes that as more microRNA-disease associations are discovered, incorporating microRNA-biomarker screening into annual clinical check-ups could allow for early disease detection. Developing small molecule drug therapies for these early-stage disease-associated signatures could be a first step toward preventing disease progression.   “For some cancers, like lymphoma, you're not going to know you have it until you feel something wrong with your body, and at that point, the cancer is harder to treat,” says Beheshti. “If you could stop it early on, potentially using this tool, that cancer could never develop—that’s the dream.” https://lnkd.in/eVDet9Jn

Congratulations to Ronald Buckanovich, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and Magee-Womens Research Institute & Foundation for winning the esteemed $1 million Magee Prize! Dr. Buckanovich's team includes Bo Rueda, PhD, Harvard University, and Victoria Bae-Jump, MD, PhD, UNC Health. The Magee Prize will accelerate the pace of this work by funding interdisciplinary research that leverages the tools, resources and expertise of multiple institutions. https://lnkd.in/eezPWB5G

#PrecisionMedicine provides patients with access to personally tailored treatments based on individual-level data. However, developing personalized therapies requires analyses with substantial statistical power to map genetic and epidemiologic associations that ultimately create models informing clinical decisions. As one solution, #biobanks have emerged as large-scale, longitudinal cohort studies with long-term storage of biological specimens and health information, including electronic health records and participant survey responses. By providing access to individual-level data for genotype–phenotype mapping efforts, pharmacogenomic studies, polygenic risk score assessments and rare variant analyses, biobanks support ongoing and future precision medicine research. https://lnkd.in/e_BP_6MT

The University of Pittsburgh is reimagining #clinicalresearch to enhance their position as a global leader in academic medicine, harnessing the collective research strengths of the six health sciences schools to bring novel solutions to clinical care in partnership with UPMC. As part of this initiative, Pitt is creating a collaborative Clinical Trials Office and a Clinical Research Operations office to provide comprehensive centralized support at every stage—from study development to execution, from data management and analyses to publications, and from innovation to implementation in patient care—further establishing Pitt and UPMC as the premier institutions shaping the future of medicine and health care. https://lnkd.in/dKU9c2JA

New research from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center suggests that targeting the way immune cells absorb lactic acid could help reinvigorate exhausted T cells, enhancing their ability to fight cancer. The study, published in Nature Portfolio Immunology, shows that blocking the protein responsible for transporting lactic acid into T cells not only improves the function of #Tcells cells, but also improved tumor control in mouse models of cancer. “Blocking access to inhibitory metabolites is a completely new take on how we can reinvigorate the immune system,” said senior author Greg Delgoffe, PhD, professor of immunology at Pitt and director of the Tumor Microenvironment Center at UPMC Hillman. “We often think of exhausted T cells as being useless, but this study shows that we can actually get juice out of these cells by blocking the negative effects of the tumor microenvironment.”