The Pharmacogenetics Research Network and the Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base.

In the United States, much of the pharmacogenetics research sponsored by the federal government is overseen by the Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN). Formed three years ago, the PGRN is based at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and counts among its programs research being done at five other NIH institutes and eight universities. The PGRN website, located at http://www.nigms.nih.gov/ pharmacogenetics/, provides a comprehensive overview of the network's projects and activities.

The Research Network page features a complete listing of PGRN scientists, with links to profiles of their projects. Each profile includes links to the member's website, investigator contact information, a synopsis of the member's work to date, and a link to all submissions the member's group has made to the Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base (PharmGKB). Also on the Research Network page is information on the governing structure of the PGRN, including network policy statements and links to contact information for its steering and other committees, PGRN interest groups, and the network's industry liaison group. Links to summaries of industry liaison group meetings are also available.

The Ethics & Communities page describes the work of the Populations Advisory Group, which was established by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to consider the possible ethical and legal impact of pharmacogenetics research. The page is stocked with the group's reports to date as well as summaries of ongoing studies in this area and a paper on points to consider when planning genetic research involving a community setting.

The site's News & Events page offers links to information on the PGRN's annual meetings. These one-day meetings, the next of which will be held 8 March 2004 in Los Angeles, California, feature morning keynote sessions followed by an afternoon of presentations by network members on their latest scientific findings. Full meeting reports from previous meetings are available on the site. The News & Events page also features PGRN press releases detailing the growth of the network's membership and offering insight into other significant milestones of the group.

The Related Resources page includes links to two NIH brochures on pharmacogenetics. Medicines for YOU describes pharmacogenetics in general and tells how it is used in drug development. Genes & Populations explains genetic research for the layperson and tells how this research sometimes focuses on specific population subgroups to study genetic differences. Both brochures are also available from the site in Spanish. Other links lead to the Department of Energy's site on pharmacogenomics, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's genomics resource guide, the Human Genetic Cell Repository, dbSNP (a database of single-nucleotide polymorphisms), the Protein Data Bank, and PharmGKB.

PharmGKB, an integrated data resource that supports and consolidates the findings of the PGRN, is housed at Stanford University's Department of Genetics; its website is located at http://www.pharmgkb.org. PharmGKB accepts data from scientists both within and outside of the PGRN. Data are organized into searchable categories according to the type of gene-drug relationship studied: clinical outcomes, pharmacodynamics and drug responses, pharmacokinetics, and molecular and cellular functional assays. Visitors to the site can also search for data by other categories including genes with primary data, genes with variant data, drugs with primary data, all diseases, and all pathways, as well as by project.

The Overview page provides background information on the project, while annual newsletters, site and citation advisories, and PharmGKB usage policies are available through the bar at the top of the homepage. The Projects page describes two efforts that are ongoing within the group. The PharmGKB Community Project allows scientists to deposit verifiable information on gene-drug relationships that would be classified as phamacogenetic. The Pharmacogenetics Ontology Project is working to develop a standardized mechanism for organizing and annotating pharmacogenetic information.

Researchers and others can find links to a number of useful web-based resources on the Resources page. Among these are the Classification of Expression Array (Cleaver) site, the Environmental Genome Project's GeneSNP site, PHASE (a program used to reconstruct haplotypes), and the Cytochrome P450 Drug interaction Table. Following the Education link at the top of the Tools page takes visitors to a list of other useful resources, including an overview of pharmacogenetics as illustrated usinq the Asthma Case Study and the CYP2D6 Study, and a link to the Minority Pharmacogenomics website.