Biology

Access to personalised cardiovascular risk information boosts lifestyle change

Research has shown that giving patients personalised information about their disease risk can motivate them to make lifestyle changes.…

Genomic medicine service to be rolled out in NHS hospitals from October 2018

An NHS Genomic Medicine Service will be rolled out across England from October 2018 to help embed genome sequencing into routine hospital care and ensure that the NHS “stays at the forefront of healthcare delivery”, it has been announced.…

How genetic testing can help women with breast cancer avoid chemotherapy

By using Oncotype DX test technology, researchers behind the TAILORx trial have proven that invasive and often harmful chemotherapy needn’t be the only option for women with breast cancer. …

Targeted medicines: how pharmacists can lead a pharmacogenomics revolution

Though commonplace in other countries, pharmacogenomic testing is yet to become a mainstay of NHS healthcare. Here, David Wright and Dhiren Bhatt argue how this process could improve the chance of therapeutic success and why pharmacists should be at the heart of its implementation.…

Genetic test could mean many women with breast cancer forgo chemotherapy

A 21-gene test could allow up to 85% of women with a common type of early breast cancer to forgo chemotherapy and its associated side effects.…

Study identifies genes potentially linked to depression

Researchers have identified 14 new independent risk variants associated with depression following a genome-wide association study of 322,580 people.…

RNA interference therapies could be on the cusp of success

This new way of modifying problematic gene expression has had a rocky start — but things are looking up.…

FDA issues guidance on developing new genetic tests for diagnosis and treatment of disease

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued two sets of guidance to drive the design, development and validation of new genetic and genomic-based tests using next generation sequencing (NGS). NGS works by looking at a person’s DNA to detect genomic variations that may determine whether a…

From pharmacist to patient to researcher

Lisa Jamieson’s self diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome came years after she first became unwell. Here she tells Julia Robinson how she discovered the link between her seemingly unrelated symptoms, and how her research is raising awareness of the connective tissue disorder.…

Keeping the record straight on the availability of gene therapy for common variable immunodeficiency

A letter from Bill Gerber, published in The Pharmaceutical Journal in December 2017, which assessed gene therapy Strimvelis (indicated for a rare form of severe combined immunodeficiency [SCID]), is misleading and risks sowing confusion among patients living with common variable immunodeficiency (CV…