Use of genome-wide association studies for drug repositioning

1. Weaver, T., Maurer, J. & Hayashizaki, Y. Nat. Rev. Genet. 5, 861–866 (2004). 2. Fan, M., Tsai, J., Chen, B., Fan, K. & LaBaer, J. Science 307, 1877 (2005). 3. Campbell, E.G. et al. J. Am. Med. Assoc. 287, 473– 480 (2002). control of reagents by the institution, they can often cause long delays for the researcher looking to obtain these reagents. Addgene has streamlined the technology transfer process by (i) using the universal biological material transfer agreement (UBMTA) as the basis for all transfers, (ii) making the agreements as consistent as possible across all institutions and (iii) allowing for electronic signatures from institutions that both contribute and request materials. This system has been used for >80,000 orders from >2,500 institutions worldwide. As more technology transfer offices have adapted to this system, the time required for MTA approval has been halved, with the median time now <36 h. Moving forward, it would be more efficient for institutions to implement a similar electronic MTA system for all academic resource transfers. Ultimately, BRCs like Addgene will be important for guiding academic laboratories into a new age of high-throughput research and corporate funding. We are seeing a paradigm shift in the pharmaceutical industry toward greater collaborations with academia self-sustaining and does not rely on outside funding. The most popular plasmids in the collection are empty backbones created for specific gene expression or knockdown experiments, control plasmids, and constructs used for generating lentiviruses and retroviruses. A quick look at Addgene’s most requested plasmids, according to laboratory (Table 1), reveals a collection of vectors that can be used in various applications across multiple disciplines. If a BRC like Addgene were not archiving and distributing these valuable reagents, they would be far less accessible to the scientific community3. Indeed, many researchers, especially those outside the discipline of the contributing laboratory, might not even realize that some of these powerful tools exist. Addgene has become a global repository, sending out approximately half of its requests to scientists outside the United States. Addgene now distributes genomic resources for large-scale projects, such as the Zinc Finger Consortium (http://www. zincfingers.org/), the Structural Genomics Consortium (http://www.thesgc.org/) and the Center for Genomic Engineering (http:// www.cge.umn.edu/). Moving forward, Addgene hopes to collaborate with additional groups to help support their archival and distribution efforts. In addition to archiving and distributing a physical reagent, Addgene also plays a crucial role by archiving information about these reagents and making it accessible to all potential users through an online database. Addgene’s website receives an average of 35,000 page views per weekday. Having clone information available helps with reproducibility and future use, especially because checking the accuracy of this information is often an onerous task for many laboratories. Similar to other BRCs, Addgene can handle large volumes of samples and data, which facilitates the development of efficient, large-scale processes for standardizing quality control and maintaining comprehensive databases of information. Currently, Addgene sequences key regions of all incoming constructs, which helps maintain a standardized bar for accuracy throughout the repository. Addgene has developed one of the first electronic material transfer agreement (MTA) systems, which has helped expedite the MTA process. Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in the use of MTAs for transferring reagents between academic and nonprofit organizations. Although MTAs may be a practical means of maintaining Use of genome-wide association studies for drug repositioning