RPGEH in the News
May 28, 2010
Still in fine fettle at the age of 87, Ruth Young, a retired Oakland school nurse, jumped at the chance, she said, to "spit for the cause." Mrs. Young is one of more than 130,000 members of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California who have volunteered to have their DNA scanned by robotic, high-speed gene-reading machines as part of the largest human genome study of its kind ever attempted. The goal of the study they are participating in is to help scientists uncover the genetic roots of chronic disease and, perhaps, to find out why some people live longer than others.
October 12, 2009
With this grant, RPGEH and UCSF will conduct a genome-wide analysis of DNA samples from 100,000 RPGEH participants. This new and detailed genetic information - which has never before been generated on such a large and diverse population - will be linked to decades of historical clinical and other health-related information, taken from health surveys and the Kaiser Permanente electronic health record, the world's largest civilian electronic health record.
Media links
Kaiser Permanente, UCSF Land $25M Grant for Genotyping Effort (from GenomeWeb Daily News)
Massive Gene Database Planned In California (from MIT Technology Review)
Kaiser Permanente wins $54M+ in NIH grants for genetic, other research
(from San Francisco Business Times)
A Milestone at Kaiser Permanente's "Biobank"
August 31, 2009
Read about the RPGEH reaching 100,000 in participants, on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Pioneering Ideas blog.
Pioneering Ideas: A Milestone at Kaiser Permanente's "Biobank"
Unraveling medical mysteries with genetics
December 18, 2008
To view Cathy Schaefer and Stephen VanDenEeden on KGO's View From The Bay, use the link below.
watch video and read full article
Program Director Q&A Podcast
In June of 2008, Kaiser Permanente's Karl Sonkin spoke with Catherine Schaefer, PhD, director of the research program, to discuss the RPGEH’s progress.
Running time: 14:24 minutes
June 2008