Obama to Seek $215 Million for Precision-Medicine

Nature

Vasan Ramachandran, MD, cardiology

US President Barack Obama announced today that he is seeking US$215 million for an effort that will match patients’ genetic and physiological data to treat their health conditions more precisely. Obama proposed the plan, known as the Precision Medicine Initiative, in his annual State of the Union address last week. But it is not clear whether he is seeking enough money to fulfil his ambitious goals.

Expert quote:

Although the Framingham study has not been approached about participating in the latest initiative, one of its principal investigators says that he would welcome the development. “Absolutely we’d like to get involved,” says Vasan Ramachandran, a cardiologist at Boston University in Massachusetts. “Every study would like to be a contributing force for precision medicine.” The Framingham study has produced nearly seven decades of medical records and physiological data, plus genome sequences for more than 4,000 people, Ramachandran adds.