Investment in Research

In fall 2009 President Barack Obama announced a new $5 billion investment in medical and scientific research, medical supplies, and upgrading laboratory capacity, which is expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs.

The funds will pay for “cutting-edge medical research in every state across America,” the White House said.  One billion dollars will go to research into the genetic causes of cancer and potential targeted treatments.  The awards will take the form of grants, meaning that institutions and researchers will have to apply for them.  More than $1 billion will go to genomic research.

More than $1 billion of the grant funding is dedicated to research applying the technology produced by the Human Genome Project which culminated in the sequencing of the first human genome.  Since then, researchers have sequenced approximately a dozen additional genomes.  Now, through Recovery Act funded research, scientists will sequence over 2,300 complete genomes – or 168,000,000,000,000 DNA base pairs.  This effort will allow researchers to make quantum leaps forward in studying the genomic changes linked to cancer, heart, lung, and blood disease and autism – potentially leading to new treatments and cures. 

Within two years, we expect to have a chip that will permit sequencing of a person’s entire genome for under $1000.  This will allow scientists to study all the influences in a person’s body that might influence the progress of disease, or complicate treatment.

The VHL Family Alliance will also be investing in Research, both in the U.S. and in Europe, expanding and improving our tissue banking effort and our research database.  Our German affiliate, under Gerard Alsmeier, will be collecting research information through a new online system, co-funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart.  Gerhard has led our German affiliate for more than ten years.  He also serves as a consumer advocate for rare diseases in the European Union.

If the German project is successful, we hope to implement this same online system in the United States later in 2010.

As printed in the VHL Family Forum 18:1, February 2010. For permission to reprint, please contact VHL Family Alliance, editor@vhl.org. Further information is available from the VHL Family Alliance, info@vhl.org.