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Chronic diseases — including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and autoimmune conditions like inflammatory bowel disease — affect more than one in three people in the United States, and contribute to five of the nation's top 10 leading causes of death. These diseases are biologically and medically complex, with genetics, environmental exposures, and even the body’s microbiome all playing important roles. The Ó³»­´«Ã½ is home to physicians and scientists working to accelerate research on all of these factors to bring new treatments to patients.

Linking genetics to biology to treatment

Chronic diseases arise from the combined influence of dozens, even hundreds of genes, together with environmental and other factors that shift our tissues and organs out of a healthy state. 

At Ó³»­´«Ã½, researchers collect and analyze massive amounts of genetic and health data, and use those data to explore the biological roots of chronic diseases. Doing so requires an all-hands approach, where advances in gene editing, cell biology, imaging, AI and machine learning, and more converge to unlock new insights. For example, Ó³»­´«Ã½ scientists are studying how genetic mutations associated with chronic diseases change how cells work to promote obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Already, Ó³»­´«Ã½ researchers have:

• Identified more than a dozen genes that are strongly linked to cancer and cancer drug resistance and are promising drug targets
• Discovered molecules produced by our microbiomes that influence inflammatory bowel disease and cholesterol levels in heart disease
• Revealed possible new subtypes of diabetes beyond just type 1 and type 2, each with their own biological mechanisms and potential treatment options
• Found genes that raise the risk of heart failure and heart arrhythmias, which point to new ways of diagnosing and treating these common conditions

We are moving our findings out of the lab and into the clinic through key flagship projects focused on cancer and cardiovascular disease. More than a dozen clinical trials are now underway, testing potential new treatments that were developed based on Ó³»­´«Ã½ insights and technologies, including:

• Two potential treatments — a pill and a gene-editing approach — for high cholesterol to reduce heart disease risk
• A drug for a type of lung cancer that currently has no treatment options
• A cancer drug that aims at a part of the immune system not previously targeted by other immunotherapies.

Ó³»­´«Ã½ scientists are building and sharing a toolkit that includes cutting-edge image analysis systems, genome editing technologies, AI and computational techniques, and more to open up the pace of discovery in laboratories across the country and around the world.