Search
The Australian Genomics Cardiovascular Disorders Flagship was a national multidisciplinary collaboration. It aimed to investigate the feasibility of genome sequencing and functional genomics to resolve variants of uncertain significance in the clinical management of patients and families with cardiomyopathies, primary arrhythmias, and congenital heart disease.
In Australia, cancer medicine is increasingly guided by our expanding knowledge of cancer genomics (the study of genetic information) and biology. Personalized treatments and targets are often defined by an individual’s genetic profile—known as precision cancer medicine. The translation of genomics-guided precision therapeutics from bench to bedside is beginning to produce real clinical benefits for Australians living with cancer.
Due to an advanced understanding of cancer biology and the rapid development of genomic technologies, cancer has shifted from 200 diseases based on pathology (i.e., what a tumor looks like under the microscope) to thousands of diseases based on molecular tumor profiles (i.e., what a tumor looks like when its altered genome is interrogated). Most cancers arise from alterations to the genome, including changes in the number or structure of chromosomes and variations in a single building block of the genetic code.
Uveal melanoma is a rare melanoma originating in the eye's uvea, with 50% of patients experiencing metastasis predominantly in the liver. In contrast to cutaneous melanoma, there is only a limited effectiveness of combined immune checkpoint therapies, and half of patients with uveal melanoma metastases succumb to disease within 2 years.
Genomic information is increasingly used to inform medical treatments and manage future disease risks. However, any personal and societal gains must be carefully balanced against the risk to individuals contributing their genomic data. Expanding our understanding of actionable genomic insights requires researchers to access large global datasets to capture the complexity of genomic contribution to diseases.
Genomic sequencing in congenital heart disease (CHD) patients often discovers novel genetic variants, which are classified as variants of uncertain significance (VUS). Functional analysis of each VUS is required in specialised laboratories, to determine whether the VUS is disease causative or not, leading to lengthy diagnostic delays.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) results from gene-environment interactions over the lifetime. These interactions are captured by epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation.
Human milk bacteria contribute to gut microbiome establishment in breastfed infants. Although breastfeeding is recommended throughout infancy, temporal variation in the milk microbiome-particularly beyond solid food introduction-remains understudied. We analyzed 539 milk samples from 83 mother-infant dyads between 1 week and 12 months postpartum using full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing.
Timo Lassmann BSc (Hons) MSc PhD Feilman Fellow; Head, Precision Health Research and Head, Translational Intelligence timo.lassmann@thekids.org.au
To describe the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and health care workers on genomics in cancer care to inform the National Framework for Genomics in Cancer Control (the Framework).