Pharmacogenomics, or the study of how genetics affect a
patient’s response to medications, is an area of research made
possible over the past decade by a better understanding of the
human genome. Translating that knowledge from research labs to
the clinic has been a challenge, though. In a 2009 survey, 98
percent of physicians said they believed that patients’ genetic
profiles could influence their response to medications, but only
13 percent had actually ordered a genetic test to screen for a
patient’s compatibility with drug treatments. To bridge this
gap, a group of researchers at the University of Chicago
Medicine is conducting an ongoing clinical study, known as The
1200 Patients Project, that creates a database of how patients
with particular genetic profiles react to specific drugs, and
then puts that information online for physicians in the clinic
to use and compare against. The study is supported by the
University’s Center for Personalized Therapeutics.Patients and
their physicians jointly agree to p