California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) are partnering with a Silicon Valley entrepreneurship organization to call for ideas that utilize precision medicine.
The winning entrant in the Precision Medicine Impact Challenge will win a $10,000 prize from Singularity University and receive an invite to present a prototype at the Exponential Medicine conference in San Diego this fall.
“California is a pioneer in innovation, and supporting the entrepreneurial community to develop precision medicine approaches is key,” said Louis Stewart, GO-Biz deputy for innovation and entrepreneurship. “GO-Biz is honored to partner with OPR and Singularity University to leverage the state Innovation Hubs (I-Hubs) and help inspire new precision medicine solutions.”
The National Institutes of Health describe precision medicine as an "emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment and lifestyle for each person." Precision medicine is being used to fight some forms of cancer but has not been widely used to treat other diseases, the organization said
The Brown administration has been an enthusiastic supporter of precision medicine for at least the past two years. In April 2015 the governor unveiled the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine, led by the University of California San Francisco. It's using data tools and analysis to develop new diagnostics, therapies and insights into disease. Five medical centers are involved in the two-year initiative, which is being funded with $3 million in startup funds from the state.
The governor's 2016-17 budget proposal would add another $10 million to fund additional demonstration projects within the precision medicine initiative, but it's unclear if the Legislature will support the proposal. The Conference Committee briefly discussed the proposal last week.
The Precision Medicine Impact Challenge will be open to teams around the world, GO-Biz said. Entries are due Sept. 6.
