Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
“I ask you to consider joining me for the All of Us Research Program —and the many, many other Americans who are volunteering for All of Us—in building the foundation for a new era of precision medicine, both for current and future generations.”

Dr. Francis Collins will join PMWC 2018 Michigan as a keynote speaker on June 6, 2018, providing an update on the All of US (PMI) Program.

This past Sunday—May 6, 2018—the program reached a major milestone with the start of the nationwide participation enrollment! The All of Us Research Program, part of the Precision Medicine Initiative that was famously announced by President Barack Obama at the 2015 State of the Union address, aims to enroll a total of 1 million Americans.

The All of Us Research Program: purpose, opportunities, and associated objectives:

• The program embodies a new model of research, based on collaboration among researchers, providers, and participants
• Participants will donate biologic samples and share a variety of data from electronic medical records, surveys, wearables, and genetic testing that researchers can use to learn more about diseases and to develop treatment—participants will also have the opportunity to access their own health information
• Rich data resources will be generated, as well as a collection of biospecimens that will be freely and rapidly shared to inform a variety of research studies
• The program is expected to catalyze an ecosystem of researchers and funders
• The program aims to enroll participants from traditionally underserved groups, as well as to collect more disparate data sets to address the lack of diversity in genomic research studies—at least half of the participants must be from groups traditionally underrepresented in medical research

After a series of controlled testing, which allowed the program coordinators to address potential issues prior to this full national launch, early participant sign-ups reached 44,000. Of these, 26,000 completed the enrollment process—an exciting milestone.

Some interesting facts

• Initially, enrollment is only open to adults (aged 18 years and older), with a plan to enroll children starting next summer
• The NIH issued a funding announcement soliciting applications from large-scale genome centers that can generate genotyping and whole genome sequencing data; this aspect of the program is expected to launch later this year
• To carry out the program, the NIH has funded more than 100 organizations, from community groups to health centers, academic medical centers, and private companies
• A total of 35 samples per participant will be collected, with a maximum of 35 million samples being available at full enrollment of the 1 million study volunteers
• To ensure privacy in this federally funded research involving sensitive, identifiable information about study participants, automatically issued certificates of confidentiality will prevent investigators from handing over research participant data
• The data collected are purely for research purposes and, as such, the selling of data to marketers or advertisers is forbidden
• All data are stored in the cloud, and all researchers must go to where the data resides; they will not be able to store it anywhere else

To learn more about the All of Us Research Program and how to join, visit www.JoinAllofUs.org.

We are very excited to have Dr. Francis Collins join our PMWC 2018 Michigan programas well as a stellar lineup of speakers that includes Eric Topol (Scripps Health), Lee Hood (Providence Health), Rita Colwell (University of Maryland), Nancy Cox (Vanderbilt Genetics Institute), Eric Lefkofsky (Tempus), Dawn Barry (Luna DNA), Ariella Shikanov (University of Michigan), George Sledge (Stanford University), among many others—see here for the full speaker list, two-track program and see the 150+ presenting companies listed below.

Please join us in beautiful Ann Arbor, June 6-7 for PMWC 2018 Michigan.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference!