Michael Higgins
Clinical Programme Manager, Genomics Medicine Ireland
Abby Langtry
Director of Patient Advocacy and Community Engagement, Genomics Medicine Ireland
Genomics research could offer a significant healthcare breakthrough — that is to say, more targeted, personalised treatments for patients with Type 1, Type 2, rare… all forms of diabetes.
One-size-fits-all treatments are generally not the best way to treat all forms of diabetes. However, if you have diabetes, this is likely what is on offer.
However, genomic research offers the possibility of more targeted, personalised, precision treatments that promise better patient outcomes.
This can’t come too soon. Especially with rates soaring, there’s an urgent need to find new therapeutics that can treat all forms of diabetes more effectively.
Michael Higgins is Clinical Programme Manager at research company, Genomics Medicine Ireland (GMI), which was established in 2015 with the aim of building a world-class disease specific genomic database.
This in fact will include data from 400,000 volunteers in Ireland from both ‘healthy’ participants and patients with up to 60 different diseases (including diabetes). This is on the whole one of the largest genomics studies in the world.
Understanding all forms of diabetes and identifying new drugs
“Genomics is the large scale study of all our genes and their functions,” he explains. “Our genes contain sequences of DNA in our cells that act as the blueprint for every human being, controlling everything from our eye and hair colour to our likelihood of developing a particular disease.
Genomic research offers the possibility of more targeted, personalised, precision treatments that promise better patient outcomes.
“The hope is that this research will help us understand all forms of diabetes in more detail, and potentially identify drug targets for novel therapeutics for Type 1, Type 2 and rare forms of the disease.”
Naturally, in this case, this research wouldn’t be possible without patient participation. “We’re very grateful for the people who participate in our studies,” says Abby Langtry, GMI’s Director of Patient Advocacy and Community Engagement.
“We believe that every patient has the right to participate in research of this kind, should they so choose.”
Educating the public about the power of genomics
Participating in this research is on the whole a simple and straightforward process. Langtry says “If a person (over the age of 18) is deemed eligible for the study, they will be given a detailed information leaflet explaining how their data will be used, stored and accessed,”.
“Once they consent, volunteer participants complete a questionnaire and give research staff permission to access their medical records, in order for them to gain an understanding of contributing factors such as medical history and lifestyle. Participants also give a sample of blood — and that’s it.”
Data security is paramount. At GMI, personal identifiers are never used to label samples or clinical information, and data is stored on a platform with the highest GDPR-compliant standards of research and data protection regulations.
Langtry says that more needs to be done to inform people about the potential benefits of genomics.
“Last year, we carried out research into the understanding of genomics in the Irish general public,” she says. “The rate (of people who knew about it) was just 6%. So there’s a huge gap. That’s why we work with patient advocacy groups to explain our studies. This is helping educate people about how genomics could deliver real change to healthcare.”
