Development of Personalized Medicine Complicated by Flexible Gene Pool

A recent paper described two distinguishable sets of genes that comprise the human genome and discussed the implications of this finding on the development of personalized medicine for the treatment for cancer and other major diseases.

Investigators at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) and their collaborators wrote in the March 20, 2012, issue of the journal Proceedings of the [US] National Academy of Sciences that they had identified two distinguishable groups of genes, specifically those that produced very abundant biochemical products in the cell and functioned properly in the majority of biological processes, and a flexible subset whose abnormal function was linked to a disease.

The flexible subset of genes was very difficult to characterize, and could be found in situations as subtle as different tumors of the same type of cancer in a single patient. Furthermore, the investigators found that the two gene categories could be found among most organisms and cell types, including stem cells and cancer cells.

The existence of the flexible gene pool has clear implications for the development of personalized medicine and suggests that detailed analysis of each patient will be required in order to determine the exact type of patient-oriented therapy needed.

Related Links:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem