San Diego

New Genomics Research Program to Use Blood Donation Centers, Volunteers to Study DNA

The program could become a model for other programs across the nation

 A new genomics research program in San Diego will use blood donation centers and donors to study our DNA and come closer to curing diseases.

The San Diego Blood Bank (SDBB) announced the community-driven program Tuesday for collecting genome research. The study comes after President Barack Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative in his State of the Union address earlier this year, an initiative meant to find new ways to cure diseases.

“It's really about not only saving lives today with a blood donation, but with an extra tube of blood potentially saving millions of lives if new diseases are discovered or new drugs discovered,” said David Wellis, the CEO of the San Diego Blood Bank.

The program will give blood donors a detailed blueprint of their DNA by sequencing their genes. DNA sequencing provides people with a detailed picture of how their genes are arranged and gives people a wealth of genetic information. The process is not new to scientists, but the access they will have to a variety of diverse genomes will be in a unique way.

The SDBB will partner with Illumina, Private Access, Genetic Alliance and researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, as well as local healthcare providers and academic research institutions, over the years. 

Blood donors that want to have a larger impact on their community's health will be able to play a larger role in that process. 

“It’s tapping into our infrastructure and part of our community that hasn’t been tapped into this way before for our nation’s future health,” said Wellis.

He told NBC7 this new model program will be a catalyst for improving genomics research. The infrastructure for such a program already exists at blood centers, so it came down to a matter of cost.

The pilot program will develop a model for population-scale research. By looking at DNA over a 10-year span of time, researchers will be able to analyze a diverse set of genomes that can ultimately lead to insight into the causes of diseases like cancer and diabetes -- with the hopes of finding a cure faster. At the same time, blood donors participating will bypass a normally costly procedure and learn about their individual and family health for free.

“It truly is the only diagnostic test you do once and it's good for the rest of your life, and so as new discoveries are made, you can go back to your blueprint, your DNA sequence, and see if you have some predisposition to disease or see if a drug might work better for you,” Wellis said.

The study will take center stage at the Chargers Blood Drive XXXVII on Nov. 24, when up to 100 pre-selected, consented pilot study participants will donate an extra tube of blood. Their blood will then be sequenced for the study and the information stored on a controlled informatics platform.

“In many science research projects and clinical trials, the true diversity of the community is not reflecte,” Wellis said. “However, if you look at our ethnicity and diversity of our blood donor populations it mirrors perfectly the community.

If the program is successful in San Diego, it may become a model for other programs across the nation.

For more information, visit the Blood Bank's website or call (800) 4-My-SDBB (469-7322).

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