Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. By doing so, pharmacogenomics aims to develop rational means to optimise drug therapy, with respect to the patients' genotype, to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects. Such approaches promise the advent of "personalized medicine", in which drugs and drug combinations are optimised for each individual's unique genetic makeup. Pharmacology (in Greek: pharmakon (φάρμακον) meaning drug, and lego (λέγω) to tell (about)) is the study of how substances interact with living organisms to produce a change in function. ... This article is about the general scientific term. ... Gene expression, or simply expression, is the process by which the inheritable information which comprises a gene, such as the DNA sequence, is made manifest as a physical and biologically functional gene product, such as protein or RNA. Several steps in the gene expression process may be modulated, including the... A Single Nucleotide Polymorphism or SNP (pronounced snip) is a DNA sequence variation, occurring when a single nucleotide: adenine (A), thymine (T), cytosine (C) or guanine (G) - in the genome is altered. ... Efficacy is the ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect. ... // Toxic and Intoxicated redirect here – toxic has other uses, which can be found at Toxicity (disambiguation); for the state of being intoxicated by alcohol see Drunkenness. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Adverse effect, in medicine, is an abnormal, harmful, undesired and/or unintended side-effect, although not necessarily unexpected, which is obtained as the result of a therapy or other medical intervention, such as drug/chemotherapy, physical therapy, surgery, medical procedure, use of a medical device, etc. ... Personalized medicine is the use of detailed information about a patients genotype or level of gene expression and a patients clinical data in order to select a medication, therapy or preventative measure that is particularly suited to that patient at the time of administration. ...

Pharmacogenomics is the whole genome application of pharmacogenetics, which examines the single gene interactions with drugs. In biology the genome of an organism is the whole hereditary information of an organism that is encoded in the DNA (or, for some viruses, RNA). ... The terms pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics tend to be used interchangeably, and a precise, consensus definition of either remains elusive. ...

See also

• Genomics
  • Chemogenomics
  • Structural genomics
  • Pharmacogenetics
  • Toxicogenomics
• Pharmaceutical company

Genomics is the study of an organisms entire genome; Rathore et al, . Investigation of single genes, their functions and roles is something very common in todays medical and biological research, and cannot be said to be genomics but rather the most typical feature of molecular biology. ... Chemogenomics can be defined as a genomic response to chemical compounds. ... Structural genomics or structural bioinformatics refers to the analysis of macromolecular structure particularly proteins. ... The terms pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics tend to be used interchangeably, and a precise, consensus definition of either remains elusive. ... Toxicogenomics is a form of analysis by which the activity of a particular toxin or chemical substance on living tissue can be identified based upon a profiling of its known effects on genetic material. ... A pharmaceutical company, or drug company, is a commercial business whose focus is to research, develop, market and/or distribute drugs, most commonly in the context of healthcare. ...

External links

• Genomics @ FDA FDA's resource on genomics
• Nature pharmacogenomics gateway
• PharmGKB The Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base, an online free tool for Pharmacogenomics research
• NCBI Primer on Pharmacogenomics, a quick introduction to the promise of customised drugs.
• Pharmacogenomics: Drugs Designed for You, an accessible and comprehensive look at pharmacogenomics research, from the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center
• A Drug to Call One's Own : Will medicine finally get personal? - Scientific American Magazine (August 2005