pharmacogenomics: current state-of-the-art

The completion of the human genome project 10 years ago was met with great optimism for improving drug therapy through personalized medicine approaches, with the anticipation that an era of genotype-guided patient prescribing was imminent. To some extent this has come to pass and a number of key pharmacogenomics markers of inter-individual drug response, for both safety and efficacy, have been identified and subsequently been adopted in clinical practice as pre-treatment genetic tests. However, the universal application of genetics in treatment guidance is still a long way off. This review will highlight important pharmacogenomic discoveries which have been facilitated by the human genome project and other milestone projects such as the International HapMap and 1000 genomes, and by the continued development of genotyping and sequencing technologies, including rapid point of care pre-treatment genetic testing. However, there are still many challenges to implementation for the many other reported biomarkers which continue to languish within the discovery phase. As technology advances over the next 10 years, and the costs fall, the field will see larger genetic data sets, including affordable whole genome sequences, which will, it is hoped, improve patient outcomes through better diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers.