PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: <\/p>\n
26-Feb-2014 <\/p>\n
Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org<\/a> 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society<\/p>\n As the price for decoding a person's DNA keeps dropping, expectations for personalized medicine based on specific genetic profiling rise. But translating an individual's genetic data into finely tailored medical treatments still faces major challenges, explains a new article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society. <\/p>\n Rick Mullin, senior editor at C&EN, notes that advances in DNA sequencing have allowed researchers to design some therapies, particularly in the cancer realm, for patients with certain genetic traits. As the technology for reading people's genes improves and drops even further in cost, more progress is on the horizon. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the government body responsible for approving pharmaceuticals for commercialization, supports these efforts. With the stars seemingly aligned, some industry experts have declared that the age of personalized medicine has arrived. So why do others claim that victory is still a long way off? <\/p>\n The article points out that when pharmaceutical labs launched their search for new drugs based on genomics more than 15 years ago, the focus was almost exclusively on DNA sequences. But now researchers have realized that for personalized medicine to truly take hold, they need to also pay attention to individuals' health histories, their environments and how their genes actually translate into physical traits. This requires a shift in thinking, plus closer ties between the research and clinical sides, and ultimately, insurers. But perhaps the tallest barrier is cultural an attitude among some in the health care industry to simply continue business as usual. <\/p>\n ### <\/p>\n The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. <\/p>\n To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n Follow us: Twitter Facebook <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Original post:<\/p>\n Personalized medicine has finally arrived -- or has it?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 26-Feb-2014 Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org<\/a> 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society As the price for decoding a person's DNA keeps dropping, expectations for personalized medicine based on specific genetic profiling rise. But translating an individual's genetic data into finely tailored medical treatments still faces major challenges, explains a new article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly magazine of the American Chemical Society. Continue reading