Translational Research

Overview | Health Policy and Economics | Medical Informatics Research

Genomics Research

Geoffrey Ginsburg M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Center for Genomic Medicine, Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy

Dr. Geoffrey Ginsburg, Director of the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy's Center for Genomic Medicine, was recently appointed to the board of the newly created Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMS). The Coalition is an independent, non-profit group that works to advance the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine. Defined as the use of molecular analyses to better manage a patient's disease or disease predisposition, personalized medicine has the potential to change the way we thing about, identify and manage health problems. The PMC was formed to provide leadership in the scientific, clinical and policy arenas within this rapidly emerging field.

David Goldstein, M.D., Director of the Center for Population Genomics and Pharmacogenetics, Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy

Dr. David Goldstein, Director of the Center for Population Genomics and Pharmacogenetics, Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the author of over 70 scholarly publications in the areas of population and medical genetics. The Goldstein laboratory studies how genetic variation influences response to drug treatment. The lab currently focuses on the treatment of common neurological and cardiovascular conditions, as well as well as more general questions, such how genetic variation contributes to problems caused by drug-drug interactions. A key priority of the work is to move beyond simple correlations between genetic variation and disease, and to ground the study of genetic variation squarely within human biology. For this reason, considerable attention is focused on understanding the functional effects of common genetic variation, both in pathological and non-pathological settings. For instance, the lab investigates how genetic variation can predispose to epilepsy, how it can affect response to epilepsy treatment, and how it contributes to inter-individual variation in characteristics of epileptogenic brain regions and related functions such as memory and cognition.

Huntington Willard, Ph.D., Director of the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy

Kenneth Dodge, Ph.D., William McDougall Professor of Public Policy, Professor of Psychology Director, Center for Child and Family Policy

Professor Dodge studies the development and prevention of violent behavior by youth and within families. He has articulated a comprehensive model of how chronic violence develops in youth and has tested the model with longitudinal inquiry and laboratory experiments. This model has led to the creation of a preventive intervention program called Fast Track, which randomized trials have proven effective in preventing serious conduct disorder. Professor Dodge also created the Durham Family Initiative, which is a field experiment to lower the child abuse rate for an urban community.

David T. Tanaka, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Chief of Neonatology

Dr. Tanaka’s interest and energies have focused on a thorough and sophisticated analysis of health care finances and resource allocation. He has created a multidisciplinary team, which has been given sufficient authority by the Chancellor of the Medical School and Duke Health Care System and the Chief Financial Officer of the Duke Health Care System to identify and correct system errors involved with either acquisitions or expenditure of clinical revenues. His work has resulted in improvement in system efficiency and revenue enhancement. He has created a partnership within an academic setting that has improved the financial health of the Medical School and Medical Center, and resulted in support of the Division’s and Medical School’s academic mission. The ultimate aim of Dr. Tanaka's work is to elucidate systems problems and systematic errors in financial reimbursement that lend themselves to statistical analysis and correction. All academic institutions need to be able to approach their finances in a scientific, systematic manner if they are to survive. Dr. Tanaka is developing tools in concert with SAS, which may be applicable to and testable at all centers. In addition, Dr. Tanaka is working with members of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke to evaluate health care policy and resource utilization.

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Dr. Huntington Willard is a leader in emerging fields of genomics. He was recruited from his position as director and president of the Research Institute of University Hospitals of Cleveland. Research in Dr. Willard 's laboratory focuses on aspects of the molecular structure and function of human chromosomes and the human genome. The overall goal is to understand chromosomal mechanisms involved in gene control and/or implicated in genetic disorders. Mammalian X chromosome inactivation results in the cis-controlled inactivation of most, but not all, genes along the length of one of the two X chromosomes in females during embryogenesis. Studies include cloning and characterization of human genes that appear to "escape" inactivation, identification and cloning of the X inactivation center in mouse and humans that controls the cis effect and appears to be required for inactivation to occur, and mapping, cloning, and analysis of genes involved in X-linked disease. Centromeres of mammalian chromosomes are structurally complex. The dominant class of DNA at human centromeres is a family of highly repeated, tandemly arrayed satellite DNA. Current efforts are directed at determining the cytological and molecular organization of long arrays of alpha satellite, which measure 300-5,000 kb in length, at examining aspects of centromere function in a series of abnormal X chromosomes found in patients, and at establishing functional tests of centromere function in cell culture systems, as a step towards assembly of artificial human chromosomes.