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The Australian Genomics Cardiovascular Disorders Flagship was a national multidisciplinary collaboration. It aimed to investigate the feasibility of genome sequencing and functional genomics to resolve variants of uncertain significance in the clinical management of patients and families with cardiomyopathies, primary arrhythmias, and congenital heart disease.
Genomic information is increasingly used to inform medical treatments and manage future disease risks. However, any personal and societal gains must be carefully balanced against the risk to individuals contributing their genomic data. Expanding our understanding of actionable genomic insights requires researchers to access large global datasets to capture the complexity of genomic contribution to diseases.
The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) Phenopacket Schema was released in 2022 and approved by ISO as a standard for sharing clinical and genomic information about an individual, including phenotypic descriptions, numerical measurements, genetic information, diagnoses, and treatments. A phenopacket can be used as an input file for software that supports phenotype-driven genomic diagnostics and for algorithms that facilitate patient classification and stratification for identifying new diseases and treatments.
In Australia, cancer medicine is increasingly guided by our expanding knowledge of cancer genomics (the study of genetic information) and biology. Personalized treatments and targets are often defined by an individual’s genetic profile—known as precision cancer medicine. The translation of genomics-guided precision therapeutics from bench to bedside is beginning to produce real clinical benefits for Australians living with cancer.
Due to an advanced understanding of cancer biology and the rapid development of genomic technologies, cancer has shifted from 200 diseases based on pathology (i.e., what a tumor looks like under the microscope) to thousands of diseases based on molecular tumor profiles (i.e., what a tumor looks like when its altered genome is interrogated). Most cancers arise from alterations to the genome, including changes in the number or structure of chromosomes and variations in a single building block of the genetic code.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) results from gene-environment interactions over the lifetime. These interactions are captured by epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation.
RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) efforts in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia have identified numerous prognostically significant genomic alterations which can guide diagnostic risk stratification and treatment choices when detected early.
Several The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers will share in more than $7.5 million in prestigious Investigator Grants to pursue a range of innovative child health research.
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is a highly heterogeneous malignancy characterised by various genomic alterations that influence disease progression and therapeutic outcomes. Gene fusions involving the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene represent a complex and diverse category.
Scientific discoveries over the past 30 years mean doctors now have a deeper understanding of what causes disease and how those diseases might progress.