UCSF Pharmacogenetics of Membrane Transporters
The UCSF Pharmacogenetics of Membrane Transporters (PMT) Project is
sponsored by the National Institutes of Health's
National Institute of General Medical
Sciences (grant U01 GM61390). The Project is part of the
Pharmacogenetics Research Network and Knowledgebase. Information about
the entire Network can be found at
PharmGKB.
Pharmacogenetics is the study of the genetic basis for variation from
person to person in response to drugs. Membrane transporters play a major
role in drug response in two ways. First, many drugs work by affecting
function of transporters. Second, transporters determine the level of drugs
within the body and thus determine whether drug levels are adequately high
for therapeutic effect. The goal of the UCSF PMT Project is to understand
the genetic basis for variation in drug response for drugs which interact
with membrane transporters. Support for the bioinformatics activities
of the PMT project also comes from the NIH
National Center for Research Resources
(grant P41 RR01081).
Funding for the PMT project was recently renewed. Our research plans
for the new funding period include focusing on two major superfamilies,
the Solute Carrier Superfamily (SLC) and the ATP Binding Cassette (ABC)
Superfamily. We also plan to expand our SNP discovery studies to include
non-coding as well as coding regions of genes. As in the previous
funding cycle, our SNP discovery studies will focus on identifying
genetic variants in membrane transporters in ethnically diverse
populations. A fairly complete list of SLC and ABC transporters
in the human genome is available.
If you are a researcher in the Pharmacogenetics Research Network, please
let us know if you are studying
drug response pathways in these superfamilies, as it may be possible to
place the relevant transporters involved in these pathways in our high
priority group for SNP discovery.
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Model of organic cation transporter (OCT2)
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