Pharmacogenetics: Recent Past Points to the Path Ahead

Recent sweeping advances in technology have driven a transformation in the science of pharmacogenetics. Understanding this transformation informs the future direction of the field. Generation of high density SNP and LD maps following quickly on the heels of sequencing of the human genome combining with great advances in bioinformatics have opened the door for application of candidate gene and genome-wide approaches to understanding both drug efficacy and adverse events at the DNA level. A future in which pharmacogenetics will play a critical role in drug development and clinical practice requires that we meet today's challenges. These challenges include establishing fluent dialog between pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies, achieving meaningful standardization of technical aspects of these new methodologies, bringing precision to the language of pharmacogenetics to provide clarity for public policy debates and realizing education goals to bring the knowledge and power of pharmacogenetic analyses to clinical practice.