Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genetic variation influences responses to drugs. This includes how genetic variants affect drug metabolism, efficacy and toxicity, with the goal of improving and personalizing drug therapy.
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genes affect a person's response to drugs. This relatively new field combines pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) to develop effective, safe medications and doses that will be tailored to a person's genetic makeup.
What is the difference between pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics? In general, pharmacogenetics usually refers to how variation in one single gene influences the response to a single drug. Pharmacogenomics is a broader term, which studies how all of the genes (the genome) can influence responses to drugs.One current use of pharmacogenomics involves people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Before prescribing the antiviral drug abacavir (Ziagen), doctors now routinely test HIV-infected patients for a genetic variant that makes them more likely to have a bad reaction to the drug.Pharmacogenomics is an important example of the field of precision medicine, which aims to tailor medical treatment to each person or to a group of people. ... Pharmacogenomics can improve your health by helping you know ahead of time whether a drug is likely to benefit you and be safe for you to take.