Introduction

The convergence of genomes and technology during the past decade has revolutionized many aspects of the practice of medicine. It will affect how diseases are detected and classified, how drugs are discovered and developed, and most importantly, how patients are treated and monitored.

Mount Sinai's disease-oriented research centers provide unique opportunities to advance personalized medicine. The School has a distinguished history of discoveries that impact on the practice of medicine and is already an international leader in the study of the genetic underpinnings of human disease. The Personalized Medicine Research Program at the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine will enable Mount Sinai researchers to define genetic risk, molecular pathogenesis and molecular diagnosis of common, complex diseases in unique and well-characterized patient populations that are accessible for studies through a rich fabric of outstanding disease research centers at Mount Sinai.

The Personalized Medicine Research Program will strive to provide an innovative, integrated genomic and translational research hub for groundbreaking research to redefine complex diseases on a molecular level.

Mission

The purpose of the Personalized Medicine Research Program is to enable and foster breakthrough research at Mount Sinai that will redefine (on a molecular level) the common disorders so that diagnostics and therapeutics can be targeted, or "personalized," to specific patient populations, thereby offering the right treatment to the right patient.

The Personalized Medicine Research Program will develop and provide essential core technologies that will enable genome-wide analysis of genetic variation and function in human DNA, and quantitative biology at the single-molecule level for large-scale studies of genetic associations and predictive biomarkers. Access and training in these resources will be critical to overcoming current research infrastructure barriers that limit our disease-oriented research centers in deciphering the genetic underpinnings of, and developing personalized approaches to, complex diseases.