Project description
Introduction of pharmacogenomics into clinical practice
Adverse drug reactions kill hundreds of thousands of patients every year in Europe alone. Hence the development of pharmacogenomics (PGX) to personalise therapies to improve the outcomes of the treatments is of great importance. The EU-funded PharmGenHUB project will support the effort of several university partners, coordinated by the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering at the University of Belgrade in Serbia to develop PGX diagnostics, education, training, and translation of PGX knowledge into digital solutions for medical applications in the Western Balkans (WB) region. The project will employ high-throughput DNA sequencing to identify WB-specific drug-PGX marker pairs and to design electronic tools for treatment individualisation in clinical practice.
Objective
Personalized medicine uses pharmacogenomics (PGX) to individualize therapy upon patients’ unique DNA profiles. With ~200,000 deaths/year in Europe due to adverse drug reactions, it has become an imperative to improve treatment. In Western Balkans (WB), individualization of therapy is done sporadically. IMGGE (Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Serbia) is a pioneer in the PGX in WB. PharmGenHUB will strengthen IMGGE’s PGX R&I potential by exchanging knowledge between IMGGE and EU partnering institutions: University of Patras, Greece (UPAT), University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (UL), University of Trieste, Italy (UNITS). Through collaboration and knowledge sharing with 3 EU partners, IMGGE will become WB central place for PGX diagnostics and R&I, education and trainings, and translation of PGX knowledge into clinically applicable digital solutions. IMGGE’s research project, high-throughput DNA sequencing of WB populations, with support of UPAT and UL, will identify WB specific drug-PGX marker pairs and enable design of electronic tool for better decision-making in clinical practice, electronic PGX assistant for WB (ePGA-WB). iPSC model for validation of novel PGX markers relevant for Europe will be introduced at IMGGE with support of UNITS. IMGGE will renew, reinforce and establish new connections through networking with WB institutions. Project will be realized through short-term visits of IMGGE staff to EU partner institutions, staff exchanges, on-site trainings, experimental laboratory work. Outreach activities will include PGX days, WB conference and joint summer schools. To strengthen research management capacities and administrative skills of IMGGE staff, a research management unit will be established with assistance from UPAT. As focal point of PGX translational research, IMGGE will impact on WB health-care cost benefits and facilitate WB integration to EU-PGX research area through R&I activities and digitalization.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinator
11010 Beograd
Serbia