Pharmacogenetics News and Research

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The terms pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics are often used interchangeably to describe a field of research focused on how genes affect individual responses to medicines. Whether a medicine works well for you—or whether it causes serious side effects—depends, to a certain extent, on your genes.

Just as genes contribute to whether you will be tall or short, black-haired or blond, your genes also determine how you will respond to medicines. Genes are like recipes—they carry instructions for making protein molecules. As medicines travel through your body, they interact with thousands of proteins. Small differences in the composition or quantities of these molecules can affect how medicines do their jobs.

These differences can be due to diet, level of activity, or the medicines a person takes, but they can also be due to differences in genes. By understanding the genetic basis of drug responses, scientists hope to enable doctors to prescribe the drugs and doses best suited for each individual.

JAMIA highlights several perspectives, five research articles on translational bioinformatics

With the summer edition of JAMIA--currently online at www.JAMIA.org--AMIA's peer-reviewed journal on informatics in biomedicine and health opens the door to translational science, highlighting several perspectives and five research articles on translational bioinformatics (TBI), and suggesting that future publications in greater volume will help keep JAMIA readers abreast of new developments and applications of translational bioinformatics, just as more hospital and academic health centers are embracing molecular measurements for diagnosis and planning therapies.

4 Aug 2011

Affymetrix to commercialize four Axiom genotyping arrays for the major populations

Affymetrix, Inc. today announced plans to commercialize four Axiom population-optimized arrays used to analyze 100,000 samples collected from volunteers in one of the nation's largest and most diverse genomics projects funded by the National Institutes of Health.

1 Aug 2011

LGL to host third annual pharmacogenetic conference on 8-9th November 2011

London Genetics Limited, an expert in the use of pharmacogenetics in clinical drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce that its third annual pharmacogenetic conference will feature top-level presentations from players in all parts of the healthcare chain.

10 Jun 2011

IMPAKT 2011 conference to highlight new breast cancer studies

"The presentations at this year's IMPAKT reveal the innovative and diverse approaches that investigators are taking to identify the most encouraging new agents both before clinical evaluation and in early clinical studies. These range from ideas for novel clinical designs to the development of more sensitive and specific biomarkers and to data sharing that allows a more objective assessment of compounds prior to commitment of major clinical resources."

30 Apr 2011

Experimental Biology 2011 to be held April 9-13 in Washington, D.C.

The meeting Experimental Biology 2011 (EB 2011) begins April 9 and runs through April 13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

8 Apr 2011

CIC microGUNE uses DNA stretching technique to detect illnesses

Making DNA sequences being passed through nanochannels a thousand times thinner than a human hair to the point that they take on the form of diminutive spaghetti.

6 Apr 2011

PGXL to utilize AutoGenomics' automated INFINITI analyzer for personalized medicine applications

PGXL Labs, an internationally recognized pioneer in personalized medicine testing, announced today that it has established a collaborative partnership with AutoGenomics, Inc. wherein they will utilize the automated INFINITI® analyzer for several different personalized medicine applications.

1 Apr 2011

Foundation for nationwide consensus on access to genetic information

Health privacy is a serious concern, but as genetic testing becomes more common, access to your genetic information raises questions the healthcare industry has never faced before. It is particularly important that we begin to address these questions now that genomic information is being collected to improve the diagnosis and treatment of children.

31 Mar 2011

AssureRx closes $11 million Series B financing

AssureRx Health, Inc. today announced the closing of an $11 million Series B financing. The personalized medicine company, which provides clinically-relevant information to help physicians select the right drug and the right dose for individual neuropsychiatric patients, will use the funds to expand direct sales and marketing for its first product, GeneSightRx®, and for second generation product development activities.

25 Mar 2011

Ambry, RainDance enter new collaboration to develop and commercialize ADME screening

RainDance Technologies, Inc. and Ambry Genetics, today announced a new collaboration focused on the development and commercialization of a comprehensive drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion genetic screening panel for use on next-generation sequencing systems.

8 Mar 2011

IBM announces new Patient Empowerment System

Today IBM announced the next evolution of the patient portal, significantly expanding the types of information, alerts, recommendations and interactive coaching healthcare providers can offer to their patients online.

3 Mar 2011

Experts caution against dangers of inflated expectations of genomic medicine

In the ten years since the human genetic code was mapped, expectations among scientists, health care industry, policy makers, and the public have remained high concerning the promise of genomics research for improving health.

19 Feb 2011

Takeda, Zinfandel enter global licensing agreement for TOMM40 biomarker assay for Alzheimer's disease

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and Zinfandel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that they have entered into an exclusive, worldwide licensing agreement regarding Zinfandel's TOMM40 assay as a biomarker for the risk of Alzheimer's disease in high-risk older adults with normal cognition. The companies will study pioglitazone in connection with the TOMM40 biomarker and Alzheimer's disease.

11 Jan 2011

AutoGenomics introduces first automated molecular assay for Familial Mediterranean Fever

AutoGenomics, a leader in providing automated, molecular testing solutions, announced today that it has launched a new test for the identification of genetic mutations implicated in the development of Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF). The INFINITI® Familial Mediterranean Fever Panel provides simultaneous multiplexed determination of 13 genetic variants common to more than 10 afflicted ethnicities of Mediterranean origin on the automated INFINITI® Analyzer. FMF is prominently present in the Armenian people, Sephardi Jews, Greeks, Arabs and Turks.

21 Dec 2010

Spartan RX CYP2C19 DNA testing system receives European CE Mark certification

Spartan Bioscience Inc., a privately held molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures, and markets DNA testing systems for on-demand applications, today announced its Spartan RX CYP2C19 received a CE IVD Mark under the European Directive on In Vitro Diagnostic Medical Devices. The CE Mark certification allows commercial distribution in Europe as well as in all countries recognizing the CE Mark in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific regions.

20 Dec 2010

Quintiles, London Genetics enter strategic alliance to offer pharmacogenetics solutions for personalized medicine

Quintiles, the world's leading biopharmaceutical services company, and London Genetics, an expert in the use of pharmacogenetics in drug discovery and development, today announced a strategic alliance to offer the biopharmaceutical industry innovative pharmacogenetics solutions to advance personalized medicine. Financial terms were not disclosed.

30 Nov 2010

Racial disparities in risk and survival among children with neuroblastoma: Study

Black, Asian, and Native American children are more likely than white and Hispanic children to die after being treated for neuroblastoma, according to new research on the pediatric cancer. The study, of more than 3,500 patients with the disease, is the largest ever to look at racial disparities in risk and survival for the most common solid cancer found in young children.

23 Nov 2010

New pharmacogenetic test enables a personalized medicine approach

Luminex Corporation, today announced that it has commercially launched its first pharmacogenetic test, the xTAG CYP2D6 Kit, which recently received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

From Luminex 17 Nov 2010

Astrimmune, London Genetics enter collaboration to plan biomarker identification program

London Genetics Limited, an expert in the use of pharmacogenetics in clinical drug discovery and development, and Astrimmune, which is focused on gastrointestinal cancers, are pleased to announce that they have entered into a collaboration to plan a biomarker identification programme.

14 Nov 2010

NEWMEDS launches largest database to advance drug development for depressio, schizophrenia

In a remarkable and unprecedented collaboration NEWMEDS (Novel Methods leading to NeW MEdications in Depression and Schizophrenia) have pooled resources to bring together data of 23,401 anonymized patients from 67 trials on 11 compounds in over 25 countries to form the single largest database of clinical trial data ever amassed in psychiatric research.

10 Nov 2010