City of Hope, an independent research and cancer and diabetes treatment center, and Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), a biomedical research institute, have formed an alliance to make precision medicine a reality for patients, according to a Wednesday announcement.
TGen remains an Arizona-based nonprofit with headquarters in Phoenix. As part of the agreement, TGen will join the City of Hope system by becoming a subsidiary of the City of Hope parent organization. William Post, TGen board chairman, will join City of Hope’s board of directors, and Trent will remain president and research director at TGen and will report to City of Hope’s CEO Robert W. Stone. Stone has accepted a seat on the TGen board and will serve as vice chairman.
This alliance enables both institutes to complement each other in their common areas of research and patient care, with City of Hope providing a significant clinical setting to advance scientific discoveries made by TGen.
City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation, hematologic malignancies, and select solid tumors and diabetes. TGen is a leader in applying genomic analysis and bioinformatics to cancer drug development.
City of Hope and TGen plan to transform the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer and other life-threatening diseases. This alliance plans to accelerate the speed with which scientists and medical staff convert research discoveries into cures for patients.
“Patients want choices and access to the newest and most advanced care available,” said Robert W. Stone, president and CEO of City of Hope. “City of Hope and TGen share a common vision for improving patient outcomes, and our collaboration will speed cancer cures by rapidly advancing discoveries to define high-risk populations, identifying targets for prevention and treatment, and promoting initiatives that close health equity gaps.”
“This alliance will enable us to fully deploy genomic-enabled medicine within a modern health care system to create a disruptive change in the practice of medicine. Our aim is to not only navigate this changing field, but lead it,” said Jeffrey M. Trent, Ph.D., president and research director for TGen.
“Precision medicine is the future of cancer care,” said Steven T. Rosen, M.D., provost and chief scientific officer for City of Hope. “Together, City of Hope and TGen will cover the bench-to-bedside continuum. Our complementary strengths will propel us to the forefront of personalized medicine in alignment with our nation’s ‘Moonshot’ initiative.”
Precision medicine is emerging as a primary approach for disease prevention and treatment for complex conditions. It is being explored for conditions such as cancer, diabetes and rare genetic diseases. The ability to better diagnose, treat, cure and prevent diseases depends on: discovering the genetic causes of diseases, understanding why individuals respond to different therapies, and translating this understanding into new diagnostic tests and therapies.
In forming this alliance, City of Hope and TGen will focus on leveraging their respective strengths in patient care and genomics to develop a comprehensive Personalized Hope program to detect disease sooner, and improve patient quality of life and survival. Near term, they will focus on leveraging their respective strengths in immunotherapy and genomics to rapidly gain new insights into immune function and expand opportunities for the rational design of new immune interventions.
