Washington University’s medical school has joined a research network which aims to solve medical mysteries.
The Undiagnosed Diseases Network funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aims to diagnose previously undescribed diseases and has several research centers and clinical sites across the nation.
The university will serve as a clinical site for the patients with medical mysteries and a site for developing models of rare disease in roundworms and zebrafish.
“The success of the program so far demonstrates the importance of this research network for patients and their families, who often have long had no answers about the causes of their diseases,” F Sessions Cole, MD Professor of Pediatrics and director of the Division of Newborn Medicine at Washington University, said.
“We are looking for patients with symptoms or problems that don’t fit into known diseases and for some indication that their conditions are inherited.”
The knowledge gained from the program will be used to build tools to test drug treatments for disorders by using the same model organisms.
“For now, we’re connecting diseases to genes, which is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack — or even a specific needle in a stack of needles,” University official, Solnica-Krezel said. “But by recreating rare diseases in model organisms, we have a much better chance of pinpointing the specific needle that’s responsible for a given mystery disease.”
The university will also receive $4.5 million in grants over a period of four years for its research and clinical programs.