By Jessica Wapner

Last year, a research project led by David Goldstein of Duke University found that variations in the IL28B gene had profound effects on how people with hepatitis C respond to treatment. More specifically, those with certain mutations were twice as likely to respond to prolonged drug therapy (Nature 461, 399–401, 2009). The link’s impact on patient care and drug development served as a wake-up call for investigators to ramp up efforts to identify genetic variants associated with disease occurrence and treatment response.

Spurred by this homegrown insight, investigators at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina decided to form Discovery Genomics. The new center—a collaboration between the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and the university’s Center for Human Genome Variation (CHGV)—launched in October. Although projects within the university are its main focus, Discovery Genomics also operates as a fee-for-service business for pharmaceutical companies interested in finding genetic variations associated with drug efficacy and toxicity.

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