The Project

The Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH), based at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, is one of the largest research projects in the United States.  Its goal is to identify the genetic and environmental factors that influence common diseases and variation in drug response.  The PGRN Hub is working with Dr. Eric Jorgenson, Associate Director of the RPGEH at KPNC, to encourage PGRN members to develop collaborative projects that take advantage of the extensive data and specimens that are part of the RPGEH.

---

Request to collaborate with the RPGEH

The PGRN has several active projects with research scientists at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) Division of Research (see Table below) that involve the RPGEH.  These projects leverage existing medical, lifestyle, demographic, environmental, and genetic information on 430,000 Kaiser Permanente members.  RPGEH participants reflect the diversity of the membership, with representation from different race/ethnicities (European American, African American, Asian Americans, and Hispanic/Latinos).  More than 200,000 RPGEH participants have provided DNA samples and 110,266 samples have been genotyped using genome-wide arrays. The genetic data can be linked to the extensive clinical information available through the KPNC Electronic Health Records. The KPNC Division of Research has established a Research Portal to allow investigators to propose research projects that involves the use of RPGEH data and specimens. 


For information on how to initiate a research proposal which includes the use of data or specimens related to pharmacogenomics research through the RPGEH Research Portal, please send an e-mail to resource@pgrn.org. In the e-mail, please describe the goals of the pharmacogenomics project and the information (types of data, number of patients, phenotypes, genotypes) that you need from the RPGEH. PGRN-Hub will respond to your initial request within 2 weeks.  If it is a feasible project, Dr. Eric Jorgenson (Kaiser Permanente) and Dr. Sook Wah Yee (PGRN-Hub), will work with PGRN member to identify feasible solution to proceed with the request.  ​

---

Current PGRN projects with RPGEH

Project	PGRN PI	Kaiser Permanente PI	Publications/Link
Genome-wide association study of allopurinol response in multi-ethnic populations	Kathy Giacomini, Neil Risch, Dan Roden	Eric Jorgenson, Cathy Schaefer	Publication: PMID: 25676789
Genome-wide association study of statin response and its consequences	Ron Krauss, Neil Risch	Carlos Iribarren, Eric Jorgenson	Pharmacogenomics of Statin Therapy Center (POST)
Genome-wide association study of response to asthma treatment	Scott Weiss, Kelan Tantisira, Ann Wu	Carlos Iribarren	Pharmacogenetics of Asthma Treatment (PHAT)
Genome-wide association study of response to metformin in multi-ethnic populations	Kathy Giacomini, Jose Florez, John Witte, Sook Wah Yee	Monique Hedderson	​Metformin Pharmacogenomics