Personalized Medicine - Where do we stand regarding Bench to Bedside translation?

‘Personalized Medicine (PM)’ is becoming a more recognized term and is often overlapped with precision medicine. As a discipline, Personalized Medicine is gaining traction in both clinical practice and research, and is focused on the aspect of customized practice rather than a ‘one-size-fit-all’ concept. Over the past few decades, significant evidence has been developed indicating variability in drug response to the underlying genetics, which will be determined based on age, lifestyle, nutrition, and environmental or epigenetic factors. PM means that the fundamental genetic constitution of an individual is assessed, and a tailored, clinical management is then administered. The assessment considers the individual’s health and disease based on their genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics. Accordingly, diagnosis, management and lifestyle choices will be personally tailored while treating infections or age-related diseases like diabetes mellitus, hypertension or malignancy. Reports have indicated that variable drug response is not new and began to be observed in the early 1950s. This then triggered research related to disciplines like genetics, biochemistry, pharmacology - now collectively termed as pharmacogenomics - that play a significant role in PM. To attain a promising outcome from PM strategies, the focus should be on early diagnosis, optimal management, and listing risk factors with cost-effective measures. Further, PM predictive outcome also depends on the response of drugs among distinct populations both geographically and genealogically. Recent advances in molecular medicine and therapeutics have triggered pharmacogenomics as a tool to understand the implications of drug response in the management of various progressive degenerative diseases in the areas of oncology, ophthalmology, dentistry, orthopaedics, dermatology, hematology, nephrology, cardiovascular, neurology, non-communicable diseases, sports medicine, and foetal medicine. This Research Topic will feature articles related to research and clinical practice emphasizing on Personalized Medicine, and its future translations and implications.

The main goal of the Research Topic is to explore the current clinical and research strategies around the world working on interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary teams about genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics and phenomics including systems for the delivery of new therapies in the perspective of Personalized Medicine. The disciplines could include clinical and research practices in Oncology, Ophthalmology, Dentistry, Orthopaedics, Dermatology, Hepatology, Nephrology, Cardiovascular, Neurology, Non-communicable diseases, Sports medicine and Foetal Medicine. Covering these research areas in the Research Topic would underpin scientists to understand the landscape of Personalized Medicine for progressive diseases.

Ethical Aspects of Precision Medicine and Pharmacogenetics: An Introduction to the Ethics and Concept of Clinical Innovation

Issues and Challenges in the Systematic Evaluation of Biomarker Tests

Statistical Learning in Precision Medicine Workflow for Circulating miRNA Identification and Development in Cancer Research

Analysing the Effects of Genetic Variation in Noncoding Genomic Regions

Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease

Implementations of pharmacogenetics in evidence-based medicine and Pharmacotyping-based drug prescription

Predictive genomic signatures

Pharmacogenetics-guided antithrombotic therapy

Personalizing stem cell therapeutic potential

Pharmacogenetics and pharmacovigilance

Drug bioavailability and gene profiling

Intersection of pharmacology, imaging, genetics, molecular biomarkers and imaging

Personalized medicine in breast cancer

Personalized therapy of metabolic diseases

Pharmacogenomics of drug-induced hepatotoxicity