Biography
Biography: Andreas Scherer
Abstract
Almost 2500 years ago, Hippocrates captured one of the key principles underlying precision medicine. In the 21st century we take the understanding of the individual characteristics of a person to a new level. By leveraging information about an individual’s genome we are able to increase the effectiveness of medical treatments. The goal is to have more successful outcomes by providing targeted therapies. The cost of sequencing a genome has dramatically dropped since the first draft of the human genome sequence was published in 2001. This is a key enabler. Now, it is very much in reach for a wide range of patients to receive a gene panel analysis or even a whole exome/genome analysis. But there is more that is required. Through a collaborative effort between clinicians, pharma companies, scientists and regulatory agencies we are working on a new framework for standard care on a global basis. This talk will discuss the components that will facilitate the power of precision medicine. Now, the concept of Precision Medicine is not new. Medical practice has always been about treating each individual patient. Clinicians are very familiar with the fact that different patients respond differently to specific treatments. What is new is that the advances in the field of genomics offer a new ways to develop targeted therapies, diagnose patients and predict who will respond favorably from those targeted therapies. Since the approval of Kalydeco (ivacaftor) on January 31, 2012 by the FDA to help cystic fibrosis patients with G551D mutation, the FDA has approved a number of so called targeted therapies primarily in the cancer space: crizotinib, vemaurafinib, dabrafenib and treminib – each have been approved for use in patients with a particular tumor profile. Precision Medicine is well on its way. This generation experiences a paradigm shift in medicine. Clinicians, empowered by state of the art bioinformatics pipelines can make better informed and more targeted decisions. Patients benefit from individualized treatment plans and better clinical outcomes. There is still a lot to do.