Four academic research institutions in Wisconsin will collaborate to make the state a leader in individualized medicine, a science that would treat patients based on their own DNA said Gov. Jim Doyle.

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, UW-Milwaukee, the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Marshfield Clinic, would join up to form the Wisconsin Medical Research Triangle the governor added.

At a news conference in Marshfield Doyle said, “Never before have these four institutions worked together on a project of this significance, size and scope.”

 Each would use their special skills together. Marshfield Clinic’s unique DNA database, the Medical College of Wisconsin’s genetic research expertise, the supercomputer capability of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health, and the urban health care research at UW-Milwaukee.

Under this they would combine the knowledge of people’s complete DNA with their health history in order to better trace the individuals most exposed to the risk of developing a disease. Once they have completed identification, the researchers would try to discover the best methods to treat these patients, also as part of the Wisconsin Genomics Initiative.

Jim Leonhart, executive director of the Wisconsin Biotechnology & Medical Device Association said in a statement, “The benefits of the personalized health care research that will be conducted within that new triangle will reach far beyond Wisconsin’s borders.”

Humberto Vidaillet, director of medical research at Marshfield, and principal investigator for the genomics initiative said researchers at Marshfield Clinic have followed 20,000 people for an average of 29 years and as a result have a unique database containing DNA donations. The Milwaukee institutions will add to that database, and the UW-Madison medical school will use its computing horsepower to help sort through all the DNA sequences.

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council said, “It’s a unique collaboration that pulls together resources across Wisconsin that is hard to duplicate anywhere else in the nation.”

One of the fastest-growing areas of research, individualized, or personalized medicine has got an impetus from the international research of the Human Genome Project that in 2003 had sequenced all the genes in human DNA. As a result genetic tests that can show whether a person is predisposed to a variety of illnesses have been developed.

“We will have to prevent disease, not just cure it after it happens, with the best intervention at the right time, at the right cost, otherwise health care costs will never be controlled,” said Elias A. Zerhouni, outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health, at the news conference in Marshfield.