Cedars-Sinai to join Precision Medicine Initiative Summit at White House

Cedars-Sinai has been selected by the White House to participate in its Precision Medicine Initiative Summit today in Washington.

The summit, marking the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative, will bring together medical researchers, clinicians, community advocates and others from around the country. These experts are working to advance the president's goal of revolutionizing medical treatments by factoring in individual differences related to genetics, environments and lifestyles.

Cedars-Sinai has embarked on its own institution-wide Precision Medicine Initiative, bringing together experts in cancer, heart disease, genetics, diabetes, pathology, informatics, statistics and other areas to identify novel therapeutic opportunities for treating and preventing a broad range of diseases.

"We are very excited about the levels of expertise that Cedars-Sinai will be able to contribute to advancing the White House Precision Medicine Initiative," said Dermot McGovern, MD, PhD, director of the Precision Medicine Initiative at Cedars-Sinai.

Chirag Patil, MD, associate professor of Neurosurgery and a neurosurgeon in the Department of Neurosurgery, was selected by the Obama administration to lend his expertise at the summit, which will feature remarks by the president, patient stories and roundtable discussions to build momentum and collaborations around precision medicine initiatives.

Patil focuses his research on novel brain tumor therapies and precision science that allows him to tailor personalized treatments for individuals with malignant brain tumors.

"In our program, we use tumor genomics and precision science to build a holistic mathematical model of cancer that then can be used to develop new, personalized cancer treatments," Patil said. "Right now, we're focused on the most common type of brain cancer and are developing a unique scientific process that could tackle several cancer types."

Shlomo Melmed, MB, ChB, executive vice president, Academic Affairs, and dean of the medical faculty at Cedars-Sinai, said the medical center's Precision Medicine Initiative is intended to bridge the gap between the research bench and the patient bedside.

"This institution-wide initiative holds the hope of applying novel technologies to clinical care that can ultimately lead to earlier detection and treatment of disease," Melmed said.

Provided by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center