Personalised medicine has become a hot topic in the healthcare sector in recent years, and the area is developing at record speed. At Health, the Personalised Medicine Network is working to accelerate research, so that the results come to benefit patients and society as quickly as possible. The network's annual meeting provides an insight into where the field is heading, and everyone with an interest is welcome to attend.

2021.11.03 | Helle Horskjær Hansen

The personalised medicine network is open to everyone, and you are welcome to sign up if you have a professional or academic interest in the research area and wish to remain up-to-date with the network’s events.

When a patient is offered treatment with personalised medicine, the treatment and prevention are adapted to the individual patient’s genetics, environment and lifestyle. The goal is more effective treatment of a range of different diseases with the fewest possible side effects. This applies to diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular- and immune diseases, diabetes and mental disorders.

"Internationally, the field of personalised medicine is developing at a high pace. In Denmark, we have unique access to health data from the Danish registers, electronic patient records, national biobanks and genetic databases, and this gives us the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the developments taking place internationally in the field. For this reason, we at Health have established a network in which we inspire and support groundbreaking research and research-based teaching within the broad academic field, and where we work together to ensure that developments in the field come to benefit both patients and society as quickly as possible,” says Anders Børglum, who is managing professor and head of the network’s steering committee,     

Tailor-made treatment for everyone is the ultimate goal    

Many members of the Personalised Medicine Network have been deeply involved in the Danish National Genome Center, which supports medical doctors and researchers in the development of personalised treatment through the utilisation of knowledge about patients' genes and the causes of diseases. Recently, the centre selected 12 patient groups for whole genome sequencing. This means that 60,000 Danish patients with specific diseases will be offered a comprehensive genetic analysis over the course of the coming our years. The decision to offer genome sequencing to so many patients is a big step towards the goal of tailoring personalised medicine to Danes and strengthening research in the area.

  "Many researchers and clinicians around Denmark are involved in the National Genome Center’s work. Several of our members have contributed over a number of years to the establishment of the centre, and it’s very gratifying that thousands of patients are now being offered this opportunity," says Anders Børglum.

The Personalised Medicine Network was established in 2019 and today has 200 members from a range of clinical specialist areas and research areas, including genetics, molecular biology, bioinformatics, supercomputing, epidemiology, pharmacology, law and ethics. The network covers a wide field across the university’s faculties together with Aarhus University Hospital, while also including a number of regional, national and international initiatives.

"Personalised medicine is an interdisciplinary field, and it’s absolutely crucial that we work closely together across academic and professional areas of expertise to make the most of the great potential we’ve got here. We look forward to celebrating the first annual meeting of the network, and I’m convinced that the meeting can help to promote collaborations and ideas across disciplines. Meeting each other in person stimulates interaction and collaborations, so we have really been looking forward to being able to do this again," he says.

Find out more on the Personalised Medicine Network’s website and in the article "What could a chance meeting in the new professional networks lead to?", in which Vice-dean for Research and Acting Dean Hans Erik Bøtker encourages all researchers at Health to play an active role in one or two of Health's five professional networks.

Annual meeting of the Personalised Medicine Network

Participants at the annual meeting will not only be able to discuss and exchange ideas with one another, but also hear presentations from:

• Mark Daly: Biobank research: From discovery to personalized medicine
• Trine Mogensen: Personalised medicine for the study, diagnosis and treatment of patients with infectious, immunological and autoinflammatory diseases
• Deirdre Cronin Fenton: Precision medicine in breast cancer when “an entire country is a cohort”
• Christian Fynbo Christiansen: Center for Clinical and Genomic Data: Use of health data in personalised medicine
• Eva Naur Jensen: Patient autonomy and self‐determination in research and collection of medical data
• Signe Borgquist: Personalized treatment for overweight cancer patients

The annual meeting is open to everyone but registration is required. It will take place on 25 November 2021 from 9:00-16:30 in the lecture theatre at AIAS (Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B, DK-8000 Aarhus C). The deadline for registration is 12 November 2021.

See the programme for the annual meeting (pdf) and register via Conference Manager.

Health's research networks

Health has five interdisciplinary research networks that work together on research and education within the following subject areas:

• The Inflammation Network
• The Food and Nutrition Network
• The Personalised Medicine Network
• Neurocampus Aarhus
• The Cardiovascular Network

The networks discuss and collaborate on topics which are of interest to society in general, and they are open for external collaboration with both leading international environments and business and industry.

The five networks hold regular events focusing on academic development, knowledge sharing, mutual inspiration and networking.

Contact

Managing Professor Anders Børglum
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Mobile: (+45) 6020 2720
Email: anders@biomed.au.dk
Network Coordinator Anja P. Einholm
Aarhus University, Health – The Dean’s Office
Email: ape@au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 9350 8408