The Genetic Understanding of Asbestos related disorders (GUARD)

该提案旨在为间皮瘤研究建立一个新的国家生物标本资源，通过系统地为遗传流行病学研究提供世界一流的资源，从而巩固和加强澳大利亚的国家卫生和医学研究工作。“石棉相关疾病遗传认识”（GUARD）项目旨在建立一个国家设施，为恶性间皮瘤和其他石棉相关疾病提供新的大规模DNA库能力。GUARD生物标本资源和相关数据库将整合目前以西澳人口为基础的石棉暴露队列与来自澳大利亚各地的病例收集。GUARD项目将进行高质量的研究，旨在发现间皮瘤中基因和基因：环境相互作用的易感性、进展和对化疗的可变反应，并将促进遗传流行病学和药物基因组学领域的国家合作和研究。在实现GUARD项目目标方面取得的进展有可能带来巨大的公共卫生效益；由于石棉接触和诊断之间的长时间延迟，恶性黑色素瘤的发病率正在增加。GUARD将确保澳大利亚研究人员能够获得与优秀临床数据相关的大量管理良好的生物标本资源，并确保澳大利亚在间皮瘤基因研究方面发挥国际领先作用。GUARD数据对于理解澳大利亚普通人群中特定基因的重要性和功能作用以及它们与特定环境因素的关系至关重要。了解致病因素在人群水平上的作用将是临床利用新的基因组知识和工具来改善临床实践和公共卫生的关键一步。

This proposal is to build a new national biospeciman resource for mesothelioma research that will both underpin and enhance the national health and medical research effort in Australia by systematically enabling a world-class resource for genetic epidemiological research. The Genetic Understanding of Asbestos-Related Disorders (GUARD) project aims to establish a national facility that will enable new, large-scale DNA banking capacity for malignant mesothelioma (MM) and other asbestos-related diseases. The GUARD biospecimen resource and linked database will integrate the current WA population-based asbestos-exposed cohorts with case collections from across Australia. The GUARD project will undertake high-quality research aimed at discovering the genes and gene: environment interactions underlying susceptibility, progression and variable response to chemotherapy in mesothelioma, and will facilitate National collaboration and research in the areas of genetic epidemiology and pharmacogenomics. Progress towards the goals of the GUARD project holds the potential for enormous public health benefits; the incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing, due to the long delay between asbestos exposure and diagnosis. GUARD will ensure that Australian researchers have access to a large and well-managed biospecimen resource linked to excellent clinical data, and that Australia takes the lead role internationally in genetic research into mesothelioma. GUARD data will be critical for understanding the importance and functional roles of specific genes in the general Australian population, and their relationship to particular environmental factors. Understanding how causal factors act at a population level will be a critical step for the clinical utilization of new genomic knowledge and tools to improve clinical practice and public health.