Special Issue "Personalized Medicine"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Munir Pirmohamed
NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics, MRC Centre for Drug Safety Sciences,Department of Pharmacology, The University of Liverpool, Ashton Street, Liverpool, L69 3GE, UK
E-Mail:
Interests: pharmacogenomics; stratified medicines; drug safety; clinical pharmacology; alcohol dependency; alcoholic liver disease

Guest Editor
Dr. Graeme J. Sills
Division of Neurological Science, University of Liverpool, Clinical Sciences Centre for Research & Education, University Hospital Aintree, Lower Lane, Liverpool L9 7AL, UK
E-Mail:
Interests: pharmacogenomics; metabonomics; epilepsy; antiepileptic drugs; mechanisms of action; drug metabolism; drug resistance

Dear Colleagues,

Inter-individual variation in drug response is a major hurdle to successful disease management. Some patients will respond well to the introduction of a new medication, others will achieve little or no benefit, some will get worse, many will not tolerate the new drug and an unfortunate few may experience a severe adverse reaction. This uncertainty about the outcome of treatment is a reflection of the empiricism which remains in modern medicine and which has significant social and economic consequences. The concept of personalized medicine is one in which biological information about an individual is used to optimise the diagnosis and management of their disease. It holds promise for the rational use of therapy and the avoidance of poor and potentially life-threatening outcomes. After many years of wishful predictions, we now stand on the cusp of an era of personalized medicine, with applications already emerging in several areas of clinical care and others expected to bear fruit in due course. This is in part due to the success of the Human Genome Project, an improved understanding of human biology, and the widening availability of technologies to support systems biology research. This special issue of Pharmaceuticals will highlight ongoing investigations and recent developments in the pursuit of personalized medicine in several key therapeutic arenas, with particular emphasis on genetic contributors to variation in drug responsiveness.

Graeme J. Sills, Ph. D.
Prof. Dr. Munir Pirmohamed
Guest Editors

Submission Information

All papers should be submitted to pharmaceuticals@mdpi.org. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special issue website.

Submitted papers should not have been published nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is a new international, peer-reviewed, quarterly open access journal published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International.

Article Processing Charges (APC) for publication in this open access journal are waived for well-prepared manuscripts submitted by 30 June 2010. English correction or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those paper accepted for publication, that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• pharmacogenomics
• pharmacogenetics
• pharmacoproteomics
• pharmacometabolomics
• personalized medicine
• combined diagnostics and therapeutics
• systems biology
• individualized treatment
• therapeutics