Dr. Shurin Gives Keynote at Personalized Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Conference

Office of the Director - March 3, 2011

Leaders from academia, industry and government recently came together on the campus of George Washington University (GWU) for the conference, New Frontiers in Personalized Medicine: Cardiovascular Research and Clinical Care.

In a keynote address, NHLBI Acting Director Susan B. Shurin, M.D., discussed the challenges inherent in trying to understand the role of genetics in cardiovascular disorders. Each person's genetic susceptibilities, she said, must be considered in context with sociocultural, behavioral, and environmental factors. To help sort out the many components involved in disease prediction, prevention, and treatment, Dr. Shurin highlighted the NHLBI’s SNP Health Association Resource, or SHARe. This extensive set of genetic and clinical data is freely available to researchers worldwide. It includes information from the NHLBI’s large population-based studies, such as the Framingham Heart Study, which now has three generations of participants. Researchers can access the data through the NIH's Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes, or dbGaP.

Along with the NHLBI, collaborating organizations at the conference included the Personalized Medicine Coalition, the American College of Cardiology, the American Medical Association (AMA), and the Cheney Cardiovascular Institute at GWU.

For Dr. Shurin's presentation and for more information on the conference, visit the Personalized Medicine Coalition.

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