2005 Public Lecture Series
Pharmacogenomics: Case-by-Case Prescriptions
Adverse drug reaction is a major clinical problem and one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Genetic make-up plays a major role in an individual's risk of developing adverse responses. Inherited traits that affect pharmacotherapy include genetic polymorphisms that are associated with altered drug metabolism and genetic variations that lead to alterations in drug targets. By combining pharmacology and genomics, the developing field of pharmacogenomics promises to provide the scientific basis for individualized medicine, making it possible to reduce adverse drug responses while improving efficacy of drugs. Many challenges need to be overcome before the ideal of personalized medicine becomes common practice. Chief among the barriers is the complexity of drug responses, including the polygenic determinants of drug effects and the multiplicity of variations in each gene. Beyond the successful sequencing of the human genome, much more work lays ahead to identify all genes, all regulatory sequences for each gene, and all genetic variations that are relevant to drug response in differing subpopulations.
Related links:
What is pharmacogenomics?
A
Science Primer: Promise of Pharmacogenomics
Pharmaco-What?
Introducing Personalized Medicine
Dr. Ding, a native of China, received his doctorate in biological chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1988. He joined the Wadsworth Center in 1994, where he directs a molecular toxicology group in the division of Environmental Disease Prevention. He also is a professor of Molecular Genetics and Toxicology in the School of Public Health, Univeristy at Albany. Dr. Ding studies the function and regulation of cytochrome P450 enzymes that are important for the metabolism of numerous drugs as well as environmental chemicals. His laboratory is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of genetic polymorphisms in drug-metabolizing enzymes on interindividual differences in susceptibility to smoking-related lung cancer. He also studies the mechanisms of toxicity of drugs and environmental chemicals. One of his research goals is to provide better methods for determining the risks of developing adverse drug responses.