A new research initiative, ORIGIN: Omics to Characterize Preclinical Stages of Non-Infectious Diseases, has been launched by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in partnership with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine (HJF). The project aims to predict and prevent diseases before symptoms appear by analyzing stored blood samples from up to 13,000 active-duty U.S. service members.
The study will use advanced molecular analysis tools, including proteomics, exposomics, metabolomics, and genomics. These methods are intended to identify risk factors and early warning signals for more than 25 conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, neurodegenerative disease, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), colon cancer, lung cancer, and heart failure.
"For years, we have dreamed of being able to tell a patient: 'We see this coming, and here is what we can do about it,'" said Jean-Frédéric Colombel, MD, Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology) and Co-Director at The Helmsley Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Co-Principal Investigator for ORIGIN. "ORIGIN is the realization of that dream. By studying the blood of service members years before they get sick, we can map the molecular road to disease and ultimately develop tools to change course. This is medicine at its most proactive, and it could benefit not just military families, but every American."
Dr. Colombel has previously worked with USU researchers on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using data from the Department of Defense Serum Repository (DoDSR), which holds millions of longitudinal blood samples from service members. Their earlier research found molecular signals in blood years before IBD was diagnosed.
Unlike previous efforts that focused on single diseases, ORIGIN brings together 10 specialties across Mount Sinai Health System under the Precision Immunology Institute at Mount Sinai (PrIISM). This approach allows experts from various fields—such as cardiology, immunology, neurology, oncology, environmental science, and data science—to collaborate in searching for shared biological pathways among different conditions.
"ORIGIN is exactly the kind of bold, boundary-breaking science that PrIISM was built to support," said Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, Director of PrIISM and Mount Sinai's Co-Principal Investigator for ORIGIN. "By uniting 10 departments and bridging the worlds of military medicine and academic research, we are creating something entirely new—a molecular atlas of how disease begins. The potential to prevent illness before it starts, and to rewrite how we classify and treat dozens of conditions, is truly transformative for patients everywhere."
The study will examine samples collected between October 2003 and September 2025. It is expected to run for at least a decade with findings that may influence clinical guidelines and public health policy in future years.
The DoDSR provides serial blood samples from millions of service members who receive routine health monitoring throughout their careers. Researchers consider this resource unique due to its long-term medical records spanning many years prior to any diagnosis.
USU's data analysts will select cases and controls from the Military Health System Data Repository while coordinating with the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division to deidentify records before sharing them with Mount Sinai researchers.
Diseases included in ORIGIN’s scope are increasingly common among younger Americans—such as early-onset colon cancer or PTSD—making results relevant beyond just military populations.
