Genetics & Personalized Medicine
In the last half-century, advances in cardiology have altered the course and treatment of heart disease. Medicine has largely learned how to prevent coronary artery disease (CAD) by attacking major risk factors: elevated cholesterol levels, obesity, high blood pressure, smoking and diabetes.
We now know that more than 50 per cent of a person’s disposition to CAD is genetic. Until recently, researchers could only identify genes that cause a number of rare single-gene disorders such as cystic fibrosis. Cardiovascular disease involves multiple, possibly hundreds, of genes.
Within the next 10 to 15 years, it is conceivable that advances in medical technology and basic science will allow for therapy predicated on an individual’s genetic profile and variants, an idea referred to as personalized medicine.
Personalized medicine is based on the notion that all individuals are uniquely defined by their genome and that variability in health and disease is determined by their genetic makeup in combination with environmental factors such as smoking.
Understanding the mechanisms and roles of genes and being able to screen for them has many advantages. Genes influence a person’s susceptibility to environmental factors. They can shape a person’s response to drugs. Genetic screening can eliminate death and hospitalization. In some types of heart disease, such as sudden cardiac death, genetic screening and prevention through therapy is often the only hope. A better genetic understanding can improve diagnostic techniques.
With personalized medicine, the prevention, care and treatment of heart disease will be tailored to individual needs through a synthesized screening and evaluation of genetic and lifestyle factors, and it may well become the future of health care.
In anticipation of this, many of the Heart Institute’s research goals and objectives encompass significant work in genetics, including:
- Identifying genes predisposing to CAD, sudden cardiac death, cardiomyopathies and hypertension
- Conducting functional analysis of genes in cell culture and animal models
- Leading the drive to personalized medicine
From a research perspective, achieving these goals requires extensive databases, advanced imaging capabilities, and clinical demographics, all of which we intend to build upon for years to come. Embracing techniques of molecular genetics and recombinant DNA also enhances, directly or indirectly, our research strengths in other areas
