Customized Care

To say that a patient is more than their disease is a cliché and an understatement. Even when two people have the “same” diagnosis, their symptoms, disease progression, and results can differ widely due to their unique biology, life experiences, environments, and more. Yet, the standard of care for many chronic and hard-to-treat diseases is a one-size-fits-all or trial-and-error approach that leads to unnecessary side effects and suboptimal outcomes for individual patients. 

The ability to tailor disease prevention and treatment to a person’s unique biology is one of the newest frontiers in healthcare. UVA School of Medicine’s Beirne B. Carter Center for Immunology Research (the “CIC”) has launched a new effort to advance the field by leveraging its expertise in immune phenotyping—essentially, identifying a person’s immune ‘fingerprint.’ Called the Human Immune Phenotyping Initiative, or HIPI, this new program was made possible with a $1.2 million gift from the Beirne Carter Foundation. 

Immune phenotyping is a complex process requiring sophisticated laboratory techniques, advanced bioinformatics, and cutting-edge data science to profile and analyze the biomarkers present and the genes expressed in a person’s unique immune cells. The goal is to use this information, along with other data points, to customize care for patients with diseases that activate or involve the immune system—from allergies and cancer to cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative disorders.