The era of precision health places patients at the center of care, transforming the healthcare landscape to deliver tailored treatments based on individual needs. Unlike traditional generalized approaches, precision health leverages advantages in collecting and studying genomic and proteomic data (omics), big data computational analyses and artificial intelligence to craft personalized diagnostics and therapies.
UC Irvine’s Precision Omics Collaboratory will be at the forefront of this revolution, improving healthcare quality, safety and equity in Orange County and beyond. The Collaboratory will advance precision health by generating and analyzing diverse omics data. UC Irvine’s unique approach ensures these discoveries translate into actionable, FDA-approved diagnostic tests. Located adjacent to the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, the Collaboratory will unite interdisciplinary teams to push the boundaries of innovation in precision health.
In These New Spaces
Experienced scientists and clinicians together with new recruits will collaborate to translate discoveries into FDA-approved tests to make precision health testing a reality.
Interdisciplinary teams including wet-bench and computational and statistical scientists will work side-by-side to advance human omics research.
Future leaders will be trained by the best in leading-edge science.
Multiple gathering spaces will bring together scientists from different fields and provide opportunities to share exciting developments in precision health with our community.
Our Competitive Advantage
Empowered by the distinctive One Health approach of UC Irvine Health Affairs that transcends disciplinary boundaries, the Precision Omics Collaboratory comprises basic research, clinical and computational faculty and staff from the Susan & Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences and UCI Health, our regional healthcare delivery system. The college includes schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences, and population & public health, as well as research centers and institutes including the pioneering Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute. With brilliant minds working together in teams instead of in silos, our experts will push the boundaries of innovation and profoundly advance precision health.
We are now working directly with the National Institutes of Health on cloud-based health solutions for the public good, ensuring that every patient benefits from our collective wisdom. This initiative is empowered by patients contributing to a rich tapestry of data, which informs care for future patients. Each patient helps refine and improve this approach, creating a cycle of continuous advancement.
Patient control and privacy are paramount when using data. Our precision health program is guided by the highest standards of data security and respect for privacy, utilizing anonymized data to safeguard personal and identifiable information. UC Irvine will serve as a trusted leader and safe hub for precision health research and care, making information and capabilities widely available while tightly guarding individual patient privacy – all under the auspices of precision health’s overriding aim to deliver high-quality, equitable care and support lifelong wellness.
The Collaboratory presents an exceptional opportunity for UC Irvine to address the acknowledged deficit in precision health efforts on a national level – the significant skewing of data away from communities with the greatest need. The diverse population of UCI Health and Orange County, inclusive of many Hispanic and Latino communities, provides a distinct opportunity to develop universally relevant clinical tests and fulfill the long-awaited promise of providing precision health testing to underserved populations.
From Data to Personalized Care: Illustrating how UC Irvine’s Precision Omics Collaboratory will use detailed omics data to build individual models and customize patient tests.
Tangible Impact: Disease Management and Longevity
How do breakthroughs in genomics, proteomics and personalized medicine allow us to devise targeted treatments for chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s and cancers? How do they direct providers to help patients prevent disease and extend their healthy life span? By utilizing DNA sequencing of genes and molecular profiling of proteins, we can predict disease progression and treatment responses, enabling clinicians to craft tailored therapeutic plans. These advances extend not just the lifespan but the health span, ensuring a better quality of life in the later years.
The Precision Omics Collaboratory will translate omics discoveries – including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and epigenomics – into FDA-approved tests that directly benefit patients. The Collaboratory will significantly propel us toward actualizing precision health for UCI Health providers and patients, while also supporting the Institute for Precision Health and collaborating as one of 12 high-impact research programs chosen for in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building consortium.
Tailored Healthcare Solutions
At UC Irvine, we use big data to improve healthcare quality, safety and equity by tailoring care to the individual while learning from all those who came before. Patient data is used alongside the power of computer algorithms, predictive modeling and artificial intelligence to help clinicians and patients make individualized treatment and health decisions. The data used might include factors like a patient’s genes, medical images, lab values, environmental exposures, lifestyle and diet. Then, outcomes are fed back into the system to help better inform the next decision for subsequent patients.
This is healthcare that is specifically designed for each unique patient, using insights gained from vast data. It results in more effective treatments, fewer side effects and an integrative approach to health and wellness.
Current Team
The Collaboratory unites current members of the Genomics Research and Technologies Hub and the Pathology Collaboratory in the School of Medicine and will recruit new faculty, enabling our team to translate omics discoveries into point-of-care and FDA-approved laboratory-developed tests.
Leslie Thompson, PhD
Donald Bren and Chancellor’s Professor, Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Neurobiology and Behavior and Biological Chemistry; Associate Director of IPH Precision Omics unit
Jana Lipkova, PhD
Assistant Professor, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Edwin Monuki, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine; Professor, Developmental & Cell Biology
Stanley Ng, PhD
Assistant Professor, Biological Chemistry
Nick Pannunzio, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology/Oncology and Biological Chemistry
Abraham Qavi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor in Residence, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Suzanne Sandmeyer, PhD
Professor, Biological Chemistry and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics; Associate Director of IPH Precision Omics unit and Director of Genomics and Research Technologies Hub
Join Us in Making an Impact
We are seeking philanthropic partners to establish a home for the Precision Omics Collaboratory adjacent to the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, and to provide funding that will drive faculty recruitments and transformational discoveries.
Named Spaces Adjacent to the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building
The overall design of the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building allows UC Irvine to foster dynamic alliances that move discovery from inspiration to practice. There is the opportunity to name the new home for the Precision Omics Collaboratory, as well as custom-designed laboratories and gathering spaces. As a philanthropic partner, you will ensure our scientists have the space, resources and facilities needed to perform their life-changing work.
Endowed Research Grants
Research endowments provide continuous support for our investigators who are reshaping the future of science and healthcare because external grants cover only a portion of costs. Moreover, endowed funding is particularly important to underwrite the most innovative discoveries and novel strategies because it provides the flexibility to follow the science that leads to breakthroughs. All this important work will be done under the name of our philanthropic partner. Named endowed scholarships underwrite the training of future generations of lead investigators and care providers in perpetuity.
Endowed Chairs
When you join us as a philanthropic partner naming an endowed chair, you will forever link your legacy to UC Irvine’s distinguished experts. Ultimately, advances in biomedical research will lead to innovative therapies. Philanthropic funds for endowed chairs, research and scholarships live in perpetuity. These funds create the ability to recruit and retain top-tier faculty who will be critical for UC Irvine to remain a world-class center of excellence for emerging therapies. Endowed chairs are so powerful because they establish a perpetual annual support stream for the chairholder to focus their efforts on aspirational research.
Partner With Us
Please join us as we make our vision of the Precision Omics Collaboratory a reality. To learn more about exclusive naming opportunities for this transformative initiative, and for space associated with the medical innovation building, please contact Health Advancement at healthadvancement@uci.edu.
