The PGENI project
The Pharmacogenetics for Every Nation Initiative (PGENI) is a worldwide effort to produce a map for ethnic-specific pharmacogenomic marker allele frequencies worldwide. It is known that for most com¬mon diseases there are a number of medications from which to select therapy and usually a large individual variability in response to any given drug, ranging from no response to disease reso-lution. There is also the issue of under-representation of many countries in the development of medicines. Variation in DNA does help explain some of the dif-ferences in a person’s response to a medication, but the cost of individual genetic testing will be prohibitive for many coun¬tries for the foreseeable future. The PGENI initiative aims to develop innovative strategies for Health Bodies to integrate pharmacogenomics into public health decision mak¬ing (such as selection of a national formulary) without placing an extra burden on sparse healthcare funds.
In 2010, the Golden Helix Institute of Biomedical Research assumed an active role in this project as the European Regional center of the PGENI initiative and is coordinating the recruitment of cases from various European developing countries. So far, the following countries have joined this initiative in Europe (in alphabetical order):
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Croatia |
Coordinator: Jadranka Setric, Nada Bozina; University Hospital Centre, Zagreb, Croatia |
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Czech Republic |
Coordinator: Milan Macek; Charles University, Prague |
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Georgia |
Coordinator: Alexander Lezhava, Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and Kipshidze University Hospital, Teimuraz Lezhava (Tbilisi State University), Nicholas Kipshidze (Kipshidze University Hospital), Tbilisi, Georgia |
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Greece |
Coordinator: George P. Patrinos; University of Patras, Patras |
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Hungary |
Coordinator: Istvan Balogh; University of Debrecen, Hungary |
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Lithuania |
Coordinator: Vaidutis Kucinskas; Vilnius University Hospital, Vilnius, Lithuania |
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Malta |
Coordinators: Anthony Fenech, Godfrey Grech, Joseph Borg; University of Malta |
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Poland |
Coordinator: Beata Burzynska; Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw |
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Serbia |
Coordinator: Sonja Pavlovic; Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, Belgrade |
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Slovakia |
Coordinator: Ludevit Kadasi; Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia |
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Slovenia |
Coordinator: Janja Marc; University of Ljubljan |
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Turkey |
Coordinator: Nazli Basak; Boğaziçi University, Istanbul |
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Ukraine |
Coordinator: Halyna Makukh; Institute of Hereditary Pathology, Lviv, Ukraine |
This project is being supported by Affymetrix
Related publications
- Mitropoulos K, Johnson L, Vozikis A, Patrinos GP. 2011. Relevance of pharmacogenomics for developing countries in Europe. Drug Metabol Drug Interact (in press).
- News and Views. 2011. Greece joins the PGENI. Pharmacogenomics, 12(6):766.
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