Gene interactions are a potential key to personalized medicine
/Gene interactions identified as personalized medicine’s missing link
“The ability to affordably sequence genomes has prompted numerous predictions about the rise of personalised medicine, however so far this has failed to come to pass. But in research published today, scientists have identified gene interactions as the key barrier to this medical revolution taking off.
Personalised medicine, where individuals are prescribed pharmaceuticals based on their own genetic makeup, has been raised as a possibility since the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003. It was thought that as more people had their genomes sequenced scientists would unearth genes responsible for predispositions to specific diseases, which would enable medication to be tailored to individuals.
However, while tens of thousands of people around the world have now had their genomes sequenced, it has not produced the clear genetic interactions initially predicted. And the reason for this is gene interactions: how different genes impact each other in the results and responses they produce.”
