Pharmacogenetics in Scientific American

Dina Fine Maron discusses pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics (PGx) in a new video and article titled “A Very Personal Problem” in this week’s issue of Scientific American. In that article, Fine Maron describes the science of PGx and tells the personal stories of two pediatric patients who received care at St. Jude’s. She also includes discussions with Dr. Mary Relling, co-principal investigator of the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) and Dr. Dan Roden, CPIC steering committee member. CPIC is a shared project with PharmGKB and the Pharmacogenetics Research Network (PGRN). In the article, Dr. Relling and Dr. Roden discuss the utility of and impediments to pre-emptive PGx testing and how their respective institutions have successfully implemented pre-emptive PGx testing as a routine part of care. The CPIC dosing guidelines for all gene-drug pair interactions that were discussed in the article (CYP2D6 and codeine, CYP2C19 and clopidogrel, SLCO1B1 and simvastatin and G6PD and rasburicase) and a list of institutions that are currently implementing PGx testing can be found on the CPIC and PharmGKB websites.