oa Editorial [A Transdisciplinary Forum for Study of Individual and Population Variability in Response to Health Interventions and Personalized Medicine]

We are pleased to introduce the September issue of Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine (CPPM) and share with you the editorial vision of the Journal as an integrated new title addressing both pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine readership effective 2008. CPPM has a unique focus on the complex challenges and promises emerging from the fusion of knowledge domains in therapeutics and diagnostics (i.e., theragnostics) in postgenomics medicine. The Journal covers issues relating to individual and population variability in drug treatment outcomes and disease susceptibility. A firm understanding of these variability questions is a prerequisite and essential foundation to achieve the overarching goal of personalized therapeutics [1-4]. We bear in mind the increasingly globalized nature of health research and services, and the diverse technologies, stakeholders and interdisciplinary expertise that collectively drive the rapidly evolving knowledge frontiers in personalized medicine. The September issue in front of you features articles that offer a transdisciplinary synthesis of the recent developments in the field. Tikki Pang asks the question if it is “too soon”, or “just-in-time” for the developing countries to consider the applications of pharmacogenomics in dealing with priority health problems. In the face of genomics research that now extends well beyond the laboratory bench to global society [5, 6], and pandemics that do not recognize national and geographical borders [7], this article makes a timely contribution at the unique intersection of personalized medicine and global public health. Following on the latter theme, Muin Khoury provides an in-depth account of the public health genomics, a multidisciplinary field concerned with the effective and responsible applications of genome-based knowledge and technologies to improve population health.