Gene researchers discover fertile Utah

Utahns already know aerospace, energy and software development are among the state's core economic strengths, but several people said on Friday that Utah also has a major foothold in a different field.

Large families willing to submit DNA for analysis, existing genetics research and other elements position the state highly in predictive and personalized medicine — fields looking at the probability of future health problems based on genetic information and tailoring therapy based on a person's genetic makeup — the experts said at a "technology@breakfast" meeting at the Wells Fargo Center.

"Utah families present a really unique resource for this work," said Dr. Kevin Flanigan, a neurologist and adjunct associate professor of human genetics at the University of Utah's Eccles Institute of Human Genetics. "Researchers here, both academic and in the commercial world, have long experience in using these to advance medical knowledge, and I think one key thing is . . . this knowledge is now being translated back into critical trials, which have potential benefits to our patients."

Michael Paul, president and chief operating officer of LineaGen Research Corp., said discovering molecular "biomarkers" will help guide physicians to more effective treatments.

"Both our responsiveness to medications and risk of side effects will depend on our genetic makeup, and there's no other place in the United States that you can understand the genetic structure of the population. So, Utah has a sustainable competitive advantage in this area," Paul said.

"We have an integrated personalized medicine content platform — genealogy-based population records, the Utah population database, comprehensive medical records — linked to the types of clinics that Kevin runs, these patient-oriented research clinics. This is really an unmatched platform for biomarker discovery."

Paul also called Utah researchers "the New York Yankees of gene cloning."

"(In) no other place in the world have people identified more disease-causing genes than Utah," he said.

But Jerry Lanchbury, executive vice president of research at Myriad Genetics, noted a potential weakness in basing research on Utahns.

"One of the strengths of the United States is the diversity of the population," he said. "Physicians have to treat a diversity of ethnic groups. Since Utah is a very nondiverse collection of individuals, I think there is actually strengths and weakness here, that the discoveries that are made in Utah have to be validated in other populations."