uncnews.unc.edu

Greece is the latest nation to join a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill initiative that seeks to help more than 100 countries make better medication choices based on the unique characteristics of their people.

The Golden Helix Institute of Biomedical Research in Athens will work with the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy to expand the Pharmacogenomics for Every Nation Initiative’s efforts in the eastern part of Europe.

In addition to Greece, the project has partners in Brazil, Jordan, South Africa, India, China, Mexico and Ghana, and is active in more than 100 countries.

George P. Patrinos, Ph.D., assistant professor of the University of Patras in Greece and a member of the Golden Helix Institute International Scientific Advisory Council, said they were very proud to join the project. “So far, we have seen a very positive feedback from the countries who have already agreed to participate, namely Greece, Serbia, Malta, Poland and Georgia, and we expect several others to join soon,” he said.

Howard McLeod, Pharm.D., the UNC institute’s director and principal investigator and leader of the international initiative, said research has shown that drug response and drug-related toxicity vary widely among patients suffering from common diseases.

“The safety and efficacy data from one population is often not relevant to all populations,” said McLeod. “The initiative’s strategy is to integrate genetic risk data for an individual country and WHO essential medicine recommendations into public health decision making without placing an extra burden on sparse healthcare funds and technology infrastructure.”

The UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy is an initiative of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in collaboration with the UNC School of Medicine, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and the School of Nursing with support from the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences. 

For details about the initiative, visit: http://pgeni.unc.edu
For more information about the institute, go to: http://ipit.unc.edu
For details about the Golden Helix Institute of Biomedical Research, go to: http://www.goldenhelix.org

Eshelman School of Pharmacy contact: David Etchison, (919) 966-7744, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
News Services contact: Patric Lane, (919) 962-8596, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it