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Think of your body as a book. The biological story born into the "book of you" is written by your genes. Genes issue all the basic instructions for every transaction in your body. It's an awesome power — and one that is only now being understood through the new science of "genomic medicine" that emerged after the 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project.
The term "genomics" refers to the study of genes and their function. The term "genome" refers to all the genetic information each of us has in our body.
Think of your body as a book. The biological story born into the "book of you" is written by your genes. Genes issue all the basic instructions for every transaction in your body. It's an awesome power — and one that is only now being understood through the new science of "genomic medicine" that emerged after the 2003 completion of the Human Genome Project.
The reason medical scientists are excited about genomics is that it opens new possibilities for designing more effective and safer treatments for many diseases. Mayo Clinic is among the leading medical centers worldwide in developing new genomic therapies through its newly opened Mayo Clinic Genomics Research Center.
Mayo Clinic physicians anticipate a day — not too far in the future — when physicians can look at a person's genetic code and determine at a molecular level who's at risk of disease, how aggressive that disease will be, and which course of treatment will be best to treat the disease without harmful side effects.
Dr. Eric D. Wieben Director of Mayo Clinic Genomics Research Center
Dr. Eric D. Wieben, director of the Mayo Clinic Genomics Research Center, explains: "Mayo has always been strong in understanding the disease process, and we have nearly 100 years of annotated, archived biospecimens such as blood samples that can be correlated with the patient's recorded clinical history. Adding expertise in genomics really puts Mayo in a position to make powerful, positive differences in patients' lives."
To ensure that physicians understand how to apply the rapid developments of genomic medicine, Mayo has developed an extensive genomics continuing medical education curriculum for physicians, thanks to a $6 million gift from the George M. Eisenberg Foundation for Charities. Notes Dr. Wieben: "We've got the expertise to build a whole new kind of medicine here."
For more about genomics research and advances at Mayo Clinic, visit: http://discoverysedge.mayo.edu/.
DID YOU KNOW?
Each human cell contains over six feet of DNA, packed tightly into 46 chromosomes in the cell's nucleus.
This incredible length of DNA not only specifies the structure of each of the proteins it takes to make an adult human, but it also contains precise information that regulates when and where each protein is made, where that protein will function, and how long it will survive in the cell.
How is Mayo Clinic's leadership in genomic medicine making a difference in the lives of patients? Pharmacogenomics is one way — it refers to the role genetic inheritance plays in a person's response to drug therapy. Here are just a few diseases that benefit from Mayo Clinic's pharmacogenomic expertise:
Mayo Clinic physicians and researchers developed a "cytochrome P450" blood test that helps identify genetic traits that influence how a person will metabolize and respond to certain common anti-depressant drugs. This test helps physicians prescribe the most effective drug at the most effective dose.
By performing genomic analyses on a piece of autopsy tissue from a good swimmer who drowned, a Mayo Clinic physician identified a genetic mutation that underlies a potentially fatal heart condition. Genetic tests are now available to identify the mutation in families with a history of poor heart health.
Mayo Clinic researchers were the first to show that individuals vary in their response to a common treatment for these diseases — the thiopurine drugs — and that patients with certain genetic traits could be killed by the standard dose. The solution: use genetic tests to determine treatment dose, and give those with the vulnerable trait a very low dose.
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