Genomics and public health

The discipline of ‘public health genomics’ emerged as a need to provide ‘responsible and effective translation of genome-based knowledge and technologies for the benefit of the population’. It is becoming increasingly accepted that the one size fits all approach is going to be outdated soon. Targeted personalized medicines, therapies, and interventions approach will be the preferred form of treatment in the not too distant future. The fields of public health genomics, precision medicine, and precision public health have proven important aspects in improving population health. However, despite the advancements made, there are still improvements that need to be implemented to significantly improve health, especially within the developing countries. In this chapter we discuss the advancements made within the field and highlight challengers or future directions.

Future Directions for Clinical Respiratory Fungal Research

There has been a growing appreciation of the importance of respiratory fungal diseases in recent years, with better understanding of their prevalence as well as their global distribution. In step with the greater awareness of these complex infections, we are currently poised to make major advances in the characterization and treatment of these fungal diseases, which in itself is largely a consequence of post-genomic technologies which have enabled rational drug development and a path towards personalized medicines. These advances are set against a backdrop of globalization and anthropogenic change, which have impacted the world-wide distribution of fungi and antifungal resistance, as well as our built environment. The current revolution in immunomodulatory therapies has led to a rapidly evolving population at-risk for respiratory fungal disease. Whilst challenges are considerable, perhaps the tools we now have to manage these infections are up to this challenge. There has been a welcome acceleration of the antifungal pipeline in recent years, with a number of new drug classes in clinical or pre-clinical development, as well as new focus on inhaled antifungal drug delivery. The “post-genomic” revolution has opened up metagenomic diagnostic approaches spanning host immunogenetics to the fungal mycobiome that have allowed better characterization of respiratory fungal disease endotypes. When these advances are considered together the key challenge is clear: to develop a personalized medicine framework to enable a rational therapeutic approach.

Advances in Personalized Medicines along with Functional Genomics and Pharmacogenomics

State-of-the-art research on the human genome has produced remarkable research achievements in pharmacogenomics and functional genomics, and these research results are making an invaluable contribution to the advancement of personalized medicine [...]

From Personalized Medicine to Population Health: A Survey of mHealth Sensing Techniques

Mobile Sensing Apps have been widely used as a practical approach to collect behavioral and health-related information from individuals and provide timely intervention to promote health and well-beings, such as mental health and chronic cares. As the objectives of mobile sensing could be either (a) personalized medicine for individuals or (b) public health for populations, in this work we review the design of these mobile sensing apps, and propose to categorize the design of these apps/systems in two paradigms – (i) Personal Sensing and (ii) Crowd Sensing paradigms. While both sensing paradigms might incorporate with common ubiquitous sensing technologies, such as wearable sensors, mobility monitoring, mobile data offloading, and/or cloudbased data analytics to collect and process sensing data from individuals, we present a novel taxonomy system with two major components that can specify and classify apps/systems from aspects of the life-cycle of mHealth Sensing: (1) Sensing Task Creation & Participation, (2) Health Surveillance & Data Collection, and (3) Data Analysis & Knowledge Discovery. With respect to different goals of the two paradigms, this work systematically reviews this field, and summarizes the design of typical apps/systems in the view of the configurations and interactions between these two components. In addition to summarization, the proposed taxonomy system also helps figure out the potential directions of mobile sensing for health from both personalized medicines and population health perspectives.

Transcriptomics is a rapidly growing field that generates new data that may be used on its own or in combination with existing clinical data for development of new therapeutics, including gene therapy

Transcriptomics is a rapidly growing field that generates new data that may be used on its own or in combination with existing clinical data to widen and affect the future of healthcare. While the majority of current applications are limited to research, a growing number of studies suggest that transcriptomics has applications in diagnostics, genomics-driven trial design, and the creation of personalized medicines. Blood samples can be collected in general practice and submitted to a central lab for analysis and interpretation before being provided to the doctor, allowing for greater clinical acceptance of experimental hypotheses. The transcriptome's immense complexity has been revealed by transcriptomics, and we're just beginning to understand how this translates to function, disease, and therapeutic options.

The Equitable Implementation of Cystic Fibrosis Personalized Medicines in Canada

This article identifies the potential sources of inequity in three stages of integrating cystic fibrosis personalized medicines into the Canadian healthcare system and proposes mitigating strategies: (1) clinical research and diagnostic testing; (2) regulatory oversight and market authorization; and (3) implementation into the healthcare system. There is concern that differential access will cast a dark shadow over personalized medicine by stratifying the care that groups of patients will receive—not only based on their genetic profiles, but also on the basis of their socioeconomic status. Furthermore, there is a need to re-evaluate regulatory and market approval mechanisms to accommodate the unique nature of personalized medicines. Physical and financial accessibility ought to be remedied before personalized medicines can be equitably delivered to patients. This article identifies the socio–ethical and legal challenges at each stage and recommends mitigating policy solutions.