Can genes predict drug responses?

The Summer 2009 issue of Biomedical Computation Review has a nice article by Dr. Chandra Shekhar on pharmacogenetics. Discussed is a 2009 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine on warfarin dosing. I like this article because there are several statements about the importance of interactions. Also, my former student, Dr. Marylyn Ritchie, is quoted. For more information about the detection of epistasis or gene-gene interaction in pharmacologic studies see our 2005 paper in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery and our 2008 paper in Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine.

Also in this issue of Biomedical Computation Review (see pp. 2-3) is a discussion of whether grant applications for the development and maintenance of biomedical software should compete head to head with basic research applications. There are good points on both sides of this argument. I don't have a problem with software grant competing with basic research grants as long as the reviewers are qualified to review both types.