Dr. Michael Christman, Coriell Institute's President and CEO, shares his vision of personalized medicine in the clinical setting with PharmaPhorum, a hub of pharmaceutical industry publications, news, and influential discussion.
Speaking with managing editor Rebecca Aris on the prominent role genetics will play in the delivery of healthcare, Dr. Christman talks about the significant new relationships the Institute has recently formed with the United States Air Force and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
He also expresses the belief that personalized medicine will be widely implemented "very soon," citing the scientific and technological innovations that have enabled the human genome to be sequenced more efficiently and affordably, as driving factors.
"In academic medical centers we are already seeing a lot of successes with the sequencing of somatic tumors and the identification of potentially new drug targets," says Dr. Christman. "The next area of the uptake is pharmacogenomics, and things are going to move faster on this."
When asked to project some of the major developments in the next ten years, Dr. Christman discusses the possibility of genome sequencing factories comprised of genetic experts who will work in tandem with doctors in the field, as well as the importance of storing and managing all that data.
"The role of a gene vault for storing sequences is to provide the ability for a variety of interpretative engines to use that information," he says. "Until you build that infrastructure, it's difficult for physicians to know how to manage the landscape of ordering a whole genome sequence."
To read the interview in its entirety, please click here.
