Concept and Definition of Technology

Concept: Pharmacogenetics can be defined as the study of hereditary factors contributing to variability in human drug response. Essentially, this branch of genetics studies the how an individual reacts to drugs and other pharmacological products to further understand genetic differences between different humans. This in turn leads to personalized medicine for various genetic disorders, or to help researchers understand how different drugs and pharmaceuticals affect different genetic or chromosome-linked disorders. Another strong concept in this field would be that the driving force for such studies was the suggestion, made over half a century ago, that many abnormal responses to drugs might be due to genetically determined variation.

Based on DNA: With the unravelling of the structure of DNA³, and subsequent development of molecular biology, it soon became possible to study associations between genotype (DNA mutations) and phenotype (observable or measurable traits including clinical presentation). As the scale of the investigations became more ambitious to find other genetic patterns and the enabling technologies more sophisticated, the term ‘pharmacogenomics’ was coined to allow association studies on a genome-wide basis. In the clinical arena, both terms can be used interchangeably.

Basic Science: The study of pharmacogenetics promises to hold a lot of potential. Pharmacists have had to deal with the various ailments of people for a long time, while looking to understand the concept of their problems. When they would try to understand why these genetic disorders occur and which drugs or compounds would remedy the situation, they would inadvertently dabble in this field. As years have gone past, we have learned to associate certain drugs and the implications of their affects and our understanding of genetic altering grew. With this approach we should theoretically be able to predict response to an increasing array of drugs and thereby personalise therapy with appropriate pharmacogenetic testing.