Clinical Pharmacology & Biopharmaceutics
Open Access

Abstract

Pharmacogenomics plays an increasing role in disease prevention, and therapy. While substantial adverse reactions and insufficient efficacy continue to limit significantly the benefits of drug therapy, an understanding of the underlying causes of varying drug response has the potential to improve outcomes substantially. Much evidence supports the hypothesis that genetic factors play a critical role in determining treatment outcomes. Numerous pharmacogenetic studies have revealed genetic variants that can serve as clinical biomarkers guiding therapy; yet predictive value often remains uncertain, and implementation in clinical practice is slow - in part because the genetics of drug response, or of any complex phenotype, remains poorly understood. Likely, multiple genes and their interactions contribute to any complex phenotype, but most current pharmacogenetic markers fail to consider the combined actions of more than 1 or 2 genes. To develop genetic markers with compelling clinical utility, broad genomics approaches are needed. Stunning advances in biomedical technologies, ultra-rapid DNA sequencing among them, reveal ever more details of human genomics, including the epigenome - the latter reflecting dynamic influence exerted by the environment. This presentation will assess strategies for developing clinically useful biomarker panels that require an understanding of dynamic gene-gene-environment interactions.

Biography

Wolfgang Sadee is Felts Mercer Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the Ohio State University, Columbus OH, and Director, Center for Pharmacogenomics, with appointments in Psychiatry, Pharmacy, and Public Health, the Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute, and OSU Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has a doctorate degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the FU Berlin in 1968, and then served on the pharmacy faculties of USC and UCSF until 2002. His research focuses on pharmacogenomics, employing genomics technologies to discover regulatory variants affecting disease risk and drug response and develop biomarker tests for optimizing individualized therapies. He is a member of the NIGMS Pharmacogenomics Research Network III, leading the project ?Expression Genetics in Drug Therapy?. He has published over 350 research papers, chapters, and monographs. He has served as founding editor of Pharmaceutical Research and The AAPS Journal. He has received several awards, including the Distinguished Scientist Award from the AAPS.