Pharmacogenetics

Catalog description

This is a "literature-based" course (i.e. a seminar course/literature survey). It will survey the emerging technologies and computational advances that have permitted the field of Pharmacogenomics to mature into a major biomedical discipline over the past few years. It will consider the likely impact on disease target identification; the development of new drugs for established and "niche" markets; the advent of "personalized medicine" including the selection of therapies that have maximum efficacy and minimum side-effect profiles. This course will also touch on some of the ethical issues associated with the routine genetic testing of patients to facilitate treatment choices and clinical monitoring.