PGP:Drug Discovery

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Purpose
In order to harness the power of personal genome for medicine, the drug discovery and development must be one of the central goals. The technology can used used to tailor drugs with large side-effect profiles or undue economic burden to patients and the healthcare system to a specific patient based on their genetic finger-print. While large clinical trials can identify certain groups of patients who may benefit from one class of existing drugs over another, discovering new drugs that will target specific individuals, organs and even tumors is very challenging.

Couple with full genome sequencing, high throughput iPS cell production and cis-regulatory analysis using allele-specific gene expression assays, it is now possible to decode the specific effect of genetic variations/mutations on a given cellular signaling pathway affecting SNP-dependent variations in gene transcription. This will a profound effect on the way in which drugs are screened and tested in vitro for therapy.