Foulkes Delivers Keynote Address at UMass Clinical and Translational Science Retreat
Andrea Foulkes, associate professor of Biostatistics, delivered the keynote address at the University of Massachusetts’ 2nd Annual Clinical and Translational Science Research Retreat. The retreat, whose theme was “Creating Science Collaborations across the Commonwealth: Translating the Life Science Moment,” was held on May 20, 2011 at the Hoagland Pincus Conference Center in Shrewsbury, MA.
The conference continued the clinical and translational science movement throughout the University of Massachusetts’ five-campus system. In July 2010, UMass Medical School received a five-year, $20-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the recently established University of Massachusetts Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS), which serves as the University’s home for clinical and translational science and research. The 2nd Annual Clinical and Translational Science Research Retreat highlighted the ongoing work being done by participating institutions and clinical partners to fulfill the Center’s mission of accelerating the process of turning laboratory discoveries into health benefits for individuals and populations, and enhancing the training of a new generation of researchers.
Foulkes delivered her keynote presentation, “Unlocking the Code to Personalized Medicine: Fact, Fiction and Statistics in Genetic Association Studies,” to a crowd of more than 200 university staff and faculty members, including UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael Collins and Michael Malone, Vice Provost for Research and Engagement at UMass Amherst. Her talk, which highlighted the potential of personalized medicine and the importance of trans-disciplinary collaborations in order to make significant strides in translational medicine, resonated with the audience of clinicians and researchers.
Foulkes’ address provided an overview of the state-of-the-science for relating genetic information to clinical outcomes and a demonstration of the challenges faced by both practitioners and scientists. “The task of translating findings involving associations to developing clinically relevant predictive models is a demanding one,” said Foulkes. “The appropriate analytic tools need to be applied to address specific hypotheses. Just as we would not use a stethoscope to look in someone’s ear or an otoscope to listen to someone’s heart, we can only find what our analytic tools are designed to uncover.”Foulkes also cautioned the audience about the limitations of genome-wide association studies involving a large sample of people. “It is now common to involve as many as 10,000 individuals in a study, which leads to the ‘discovery’ of genetic polymorphisms that have only very small effects on disease, but are nonetheless considered statistically significant.”
Findings can also be skewed in other ways. A high relative risk does not necessarily mean a high absolute risk. Said Foulkes, “Individuals may be twice as likely to get a disease if they have a particular genetic risk factor compared to people who do not have this characteristic, but the actual likelihood of getting the disease may be quite small.”
The presentation set the tone for a day filled with a spirit of scientific inquiry and cooperation. “This honor was especially meaningful to me, as a Biostatistician,” Foulkes said. “It demonstrates the commitment of UMass faculty to be at the forefront of clinical and translational sciences by recognizing the centrality of Biostatistics in translational medicine, and the importance of trans-disciplinary collaboration.”
