DNA Unlocked: Reshaping the Future: How Close Are We to Precision Medicine?

Human genetics has the power to transform the future of drug development, disease treatment, and the overall approach to healthcare. In this episode, we discuss current and future applications of -omics to clinical trials, disease risk assessment, and precision medicine with Amit Khera, a cardiologist and associate director of the Precision Medicine Unit in the Center for Genomics Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Khera pioneered the use of polygenic risk scores calculated from genome-wide associate studies as a way to quantify genetic risk. His research program uses genetic variation as a tool to uncover new biology and enable enhanced clinical care informed by inherited susceptibility.

 

DNA Unlocked is a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative services Team. This series is brought to you by Amgen, which is a pioneer in the science of using living cells to make biologic medicines. They helped invent the processes and tools that built the global biotech industry, and have since reached millions of patients suffering from serious illnesses around the world with their medicines.

Since the initial sequencing of the human genome almost twenty years ago, researchers have been enticed by an explosion of DNA data. These sequences hold the promise of understanding human biology, transforming drug research and development, and curing diseases. However, the quest to generate insights from human genetics and -omics research has been full of twists, turns, and roadblocks. In DNA UNLOCKED, Ray Deshaies, senior vice president of Global Research at Amgen, explores the ever-evolving perception of human biology and disease processes thanks to a growing mountain of genetics and omics data. Through discussions with colleagues and other leading research experts, Deshaies unpacks how drug developers decode human genetics to solve some of the most challenging diseases.