June 2, 2010

Kaiser Permanente and the University of California, San Francisco have started analyzing human genomes in a huge genome project which has collected DNA from 140,000 Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California.

The Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH) and UCSF’s Institute for Human Genetics won a $24.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in October of 2009 to study disease, health and aging.

Now the specimens and the technology are in place and the analysis has started. So far the genes of 7,000 people have been processed, said Neil Risch, Director of the UCSF Institute and co-director of the RPGEH.

“It’s bringing together this latest wave of genetic technology and the incredible depth of clinical, laboratory, radiological, and pharmaceutical information over 20 years,” Risch said. With Kaiser’s database of medical records the researchers will have access to every lab test, x-ray, MRI and all other health data collected for the participants over the last 20 years. The average age of participants is 65.

Both the genetic information generated and the environmental information available, such as air and water quality, proximity to parks and healthy foods, and more will be used to study genetic and environmental affects on health. Some of the information may explain differences in peoples’ reactions to medication or why patients with the same disease develop different symptoms.

Risch marvels at the amount of information the researchers have to work with.

“This is the kind of information that only exists in a place like Kaiser,” he said.

The researchers have designed their own DNA chips for the study and are using new technology from Affymetrix Inc., a manufacturer of DNA microarrays in Santa Clara.

“This new technology is working very well,” Risch said.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), which is part of the NIH, is the lead organization on the grant funding the project. NIA provided more than $11 million of the grant money.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to develop this extraordinary database in an older population, to facilitate studies of gene-environment interaction as determinants of health, disease, and longevity,” said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D.