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Dr. Eric Topol’s reaction upon arriving in La Jolla three months ago with his family was typical of most first-time visitors’.
“I wish we got here years ago, in every respect,” said Topol, the newly appointed chief academic officer for La Jolla-based Scripps Health.
But unlike most, his affinity for the area is only marginally enhanced by the surf and climate.
“All these opportunities here for synergistic activities and the brain trust of great science here , Scripps, Salk Institute, Burnham Institute, UC San Diego , it’s unbelievable, unmatched,” said Topol, adding that the auspiciousness of the region is enhanced by 500 life science and biotechnology companies.
“If you took all this stuff and assembled it in Siberia, it would be academically fulfilling,” added Topol, but put it in La Jolla that’s the real kicker.
Topol is heading a new charge for the nonprofit Scripps health care system, an organization consisting of five hospital campuses, Scripps Clinic and Scripps Mercy Medical Group. The goal, under his leadership, is to dramatically reduce the rapidly increasing cost of medicine while enhancing its benefits.
How? Through genomics , the study of the genome.
“I wrote my (undergraduate) thesis on prospects for genetic therapy in man,” said Topol. “I look back and laugh. How did I even think there was going to be gene therapy in 1975? We’re still not there yet.”
But Scripps plans to get there before any other health care provider in collaboration with three new local programs , Scripps Genomic Medicine, the Scripps Translational Science Institute and Scripps Advanced Clinical Trials , all of which are headed by Topol.
Genetic Scientists Appointed
On March 30, Scripps announced the appointment of three genetic scientists to help undertake this work and lead its programs: Nicholas Schork as director of research; Kelly Frazer as director of genomic biology; and Sarah Shaw Murray as director of genetics.
Schork , who, with his quantitative biology background, makes sense of the numbers coming from large genomic databases , said that these new programs represent a fundamental change in clinical practice.
“There’s very few health care systems, if any, that are really trying to position themselves to embrace this kind of research,” said Schork.
Schork said the infrastructure available at Scripps Health , the facilities, technology, healthy and unhealthy people , is what gives these programs great potential.
The team has met regularly with local life science companies and biotech firms to discuss partnerships. When they aren’t meeting with big companies or formulating strategy, they’re hiring new employees.
“We’re around 18 or 19 employees,” said Topol. “By year-end we should be at 40 or 50 and we’re planning for well over 100 over the next few years.”
Through the three new programs at Scripps, Topol and his team hope to find genetic solutions , from diagnosis to treatment , that would “individualize” medicine, as opposed to a blanket treatment given to thousands of patients.
“A lot of people are at risk for colon cancer and have to get regular colonoscopies, but what if you don’t have any colon cancer genes?” asked Topol. “That’s not a fun procedure to go through and it’s several thousand dollars without insurance.”
Finding out whether a patient actually carries a colon cancer gene would greatly reduce the number of colonoscopies, Topol argues. And so it is with other diseases that can be traced to genes.
In an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times on March 28, Topol discussed how medicine will change from a “one size fits all” methodology into one where an individual’s biology will be analyzed at the gene, protein and metabolic levels and treated in the same fashion.
The Heart Of Genetics
Before joining Scripps three months ago, Topol chaired the department of cardiovascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic for 15 years. During most of his tenure, U.S. News
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