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But the ambitious proposal faces stiff competition from states such as California, which have already made similar investments.
The Wisconsin Medical Research Triangle will include scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s school of medicine and public health, UW-Milwaukee, the Milwaukee-based Medical College of Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic, Doyle said.
“We have a rare opportunity to meet an important scientific and public health need that could otherwise not be met,” Doyle said, “and which cannot be accomplished anywhere else but Wisconsin.”
The group’s first project will be the Wisconsin Genomics Initiative, an effort to learn more about how human DNA relates to diseases. Doctors could eventually use that information to predict who’s at risk of certain illnesses and design treatments based on the patient’s unique DNA code.
The collaboration will help the state improve health care and reduce medical costs, and it also will attract companies, jobs and federal grant dollars, Doyle said at a news conference at the Marshfield Clinic.
U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, a Democrat from Wausau, said medical experts have testified before his congressional committee that personalized medicine is the future of health care.
“The Wisconsin Genomics Initiative will bring us closer to that reality,” he said. “I’m proud that Wisconsin is helping to lead the nation in medical research.”
But a number of other states have already staked their claims to a position of national leadership in the field, said Edward Abrahams, the executive director of the Personalized Medicine Coalition in Washington, D.C. States including California, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Utah have been investing in the field for years.
“The governor is on right path. I just note he’s not alone,” Abrahams said. “Wisconsin has a lot going for it in terms of resource infrastructure, but places like the (California) Bay Area and Cambridge, Mass., have head starts because they’re already centers of biotechnology and innovation.”
Personalized health care involves learning which genes contribute to which diseases. With that knowledge, doctors could theoretically test patients’ DNA to determine whether they have those genes and are hence at risk of developing those diseases.
Doctors also might use genetic information to personalize a patient’s treatment. Since different people react differently to the same medicine, a patient’s genetic code might tell doctors which treatments would be more effective for that specific person.
But the field has prompted philosophical concerns. Some ethicists ask whether people are better off not knowing how they’re likely to die, and others worry that people at risk for certain diseases might face discrimination from employers or insurance companies.
For now, personalized medicine remains a theoretical concept. The biology of how DNA variations actually lead to certain diseases is still poorly understood, although a number of public and private institutions have been racing to find answers.
Wisconsin’s team can be a strong competitor in that race, Doyle said.
“Our major research institutions are willing to put aside rivalries and competition and work together,” he said.
The Marshfield Clinic is home to the largest DNA bank in the nation, Doyle said. It has DNA samples from more than 20,000 individuals, as well as a medical-record database with more than 20 years of medical history.
