Pharmacogenomics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Pharmacogenomics, including details on pharmacology, designer drugs, customized medicines.

Pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics and ecogenetics.

Motulsky AG, Qi M

Department of Medicine Medical Genetics and Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. agmot@u.washington.edu

Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics deal with the role of genetic factors in drug effectiveness and adverse drug reactions. The promise of a personalized medicine is beginning to be explored but requires much more clinical and translational research. Specific DNA abnormalities in some cancers already have led to effective targeted treatments. Racially determined frequency differences in pharmacogenetic traits may affect choice of treatment requiring specific testing rather than basing treatments according to racial designation. The role of genes in variable responses to foreign chemicals (xenobiotics) has been termed ecogenetics or toxicogenetics raising problems in public health and occupational medicine. Nutrigenetics refers to genetic variation in response to nutrients and may affect nutritional requirements and predisposition to chronic disease.

Published 19 January 2006 in J Zhejiang Univ Sci B, 7(2): 169-70.
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