Precision medicine - making sense of science

On April 22, we will watch a video lecture by Dr. Ruslan Dorfman, PhD, CEO of GeneYouIn, on precision medicine approach to the prevention and treatment of cancer and other conditions.

GeneYouIn is a Canadian genetic testing company which has developed a proprietary genome analytics platform called PillCheck™. This is a genetic test that uses state-of-the-art DNA sequencing technology to identify specific variations in genes responsible for drug absorption and metabolism.

National Research Council about Precision Medicine:
"Precision Medicine refers to the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient. It does not literally mean the creation of drugs or medical devices that are unique to a patient, but rather the ability to classify individuals into subpopulations that differ in their susceptibility to a particular disease, in the biology and/or prognosis of those diseases they may develop, or in their response to a specific treatment."
"In the Precision Medicine model, diagnostic testing is often employed for selecting appropriate and optimal therapies based on the context of a patient’s genetic content or other molecular or cellular analysis."

We will be pausing the video for the discussion and questions.

As usually, here are links to the recent news on biotechnology and medicine:
Researcher synthesizes hybrid molecule that delivers a blow to malignant cells
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-hybrid-molecule-malignant-cells.html

Breakthrough method means CRISPR just got a lot more relevant to human health
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/20/11450262/crispr-base-editing-single-nucleotides-dna-gene-liu-harvard ­

First Gene Therapy Successful Against Human Aging
http://bioviva-science.com/2016/04/21/first-gene-therapy-successful-against-human-aging/ ­

The list of cancers that can be treated by immunotherapy keeps growing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/04/19/breakthrough-cancer-therapy-shows-growing-promise/ ­

Skimmed Milk: Study Finds People Who Eat More Full-Fat Dairy Less Likely to Develop Diabetes
http://sostrenews.com/skimmed-milk-study-finds-people-who-eat-more-full-fat-dairy-less-likely-to-develop-diabetes/

Reverse your diabetes: You can stay diabetes-free long-term
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160322080542.htm

Could Some Types Of Sugar Actually Be Good For You? http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/could-some-types-sugar-actually-be-good-you

Genome discovery holds key to designer organisms
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601100/genome-discovery-holds-key-to-designer-organisms

Maggots Modified to Heal Wounds Faster
http://news.discovery.com/human/health/maggots-modified-to-heal-wounds-faster-160324.htm

We will start at 7:00 p.m., with the afterwards discussion at Baton Rouge, from 9:15 p.m. The meeting will take place in Committee room 3.

The meetup fee is $3 payable at the event. It helps us to cover the cost of the website maintenance and the projector we bought for the presentations.

Hope to see everyone on April 22!