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When the President of Navarre, María Chivite, opened the first Mass Sequencing Center in the Autonomous Community last November – the second public property in all of Spain – it was opened a whole series of possibilities in relation to the world of genomics applied in healthcare and consequently to the world of personalized medicine in the region.
Now, more than two months later, we know that Navarre has a plan to become a benchmark. And this plan wants to prove it with the participation of the whole society.
The minister of the university, innovation and digital transformation, Juan Cruz Cigudosa, announced during his participation in the conference ‘My genome, key to Personalized Medicine’ that the regional government is finalizing a concept of the personalized strategy for precision medicine.
This plan, of which no details have yet been given, will be submitted to public consultation and, as he has explained, every citizen is given the opportunity to contribute for a month.
It is important to emphasize that any citizen can contribute to this strategy. Personalized medicine is perhaps the most democratic health challenge of the future. And centers like mass sequencing are essential.
And is that Mass sequencing allows an individual’s entire genome to be analyzed within 24 hours and mutations identified that cause hereditary or genetic diseases (e.g. cystic fibrosis or various hereditary cancers).
Taking into account that the genome of every human being consists of 3,000 million elements (bases) that make it uniquethe importance of both a center with these characteristics and a strategy for betting on personalized medicine is clear.
Opportunities
On the day when Cigudosa announced the forthcoming publication of this design, another consultant, that of Economic and Business Development, Mikel Irujo, emphasized exactly “the importance of collaboration in preparing the text of the Comprehensive Strategy for Personalized Medicine ”.
In his speech he reiterated that “this It is a field that offers an opportunity to strengthen the health ecosystem of Navarre, with significant job creation potential, based on public-private partnerships and from an economic and business development perspective. This is included in the Navarra S3 Smart Specialization Strategy, to help improve the competitiveness and well-being of the area ”.
The event featured the intervention of protagonists called to be vital to the development of this strategy. The purpose of the conference was precisely to present, from the point of view of professionals and patients, the benefits that these types of medicines can bring to citizens.
For example, Marisa Saldaña, a relative of a patient from the NAGEN1000 project. This project is an initiative led by the Navarrabiomed biomedical research center, which strives for it transfer the use of the most avant-garde technology for the analysis of the entire human genome to the Navarre Public Health Network.
To do this, the study of 1,000 taken from patients and their relatives with rare diseases and some cancers from the Navarre Health Service-Osasunbidea.
Saldaña stressed that with projects related to personalized medicine “knowledge about rare diseases is being improved and new lines of research are opened that will lead to significant advances in the treatments of our family members. “” NAGEN1000 has given us the explanation for the symptoms and problems our son has, we know why it is happening, causing these changes … “he notes.
The Director of the Genomic Medicine Unit at the University of Navarra Clinic, Ana Patiño, also present at this conference, emphasized what genomic sequencing for the clinical treatment of patients “must be adapted and adapted to the needs of that patient and accompanied by appropriate genetic counseling ”.
In that sense, it has considered that “The most important thing to help patients is the interpretation of the genomic data.”
According to Patiño we are in a country and in a community with very important public and private resources for sequencing, but the most relevant is how to ensure that the data is interpreted correctly clinically useful for patients. “
In this sense, Gonzalo R. Ordóñez, director of Personalized Medicine and Laboratories at Nasertic, a public technology services company, took up the gauntlet and stated that he had the technical capability to sequence the human genome in Navarre “does not mean it is convenient to sequence all Navarrese patients, rather, the different applications of sequencing should be used in accordance with clinical guidelines and recommendations. “
Finally, Josune Hualde, the pediatrician of the Navarra Hospital Complex and principal investigator in Navarrabiomed of the NAGEN PEDIATRICS project, stressed, “The importance of promote research and deepen a better understanding of the genome. “
He stated that “advances in genomic medicine have made it possible to discover new applications, as suggested by the NAGEN PEDIATRICS project, which aims to use full genomic sequencing for acute clinical situations of girls and boys admitted with a suspected genetic disease, screening positive neonatal and oncological girls and boys “.
The genetic disease, according to Hualde, “is very significant in children and the diagnosis is complex.” The opportunity offered by new developments in genomic medicine “They are very encouraging and, from the doctor’s point of view, it is a real opportunity to improve the quality of life for these children.”
In short, personalized medicine, yes or yes, it is everyone’s business and hence the will of the Government of Navarre to involve the whole of society in devising a strategy that could put the region at the forefront of this sector.