Pharmacogenomics on Nightly News with Lester Holt

The Wednesday, June 28th edition of the Nightly News with Lester Holt featured a short segment on pharmacogenomics.

The piece briefly covered the Mayo Clinic's work in expanding the use of pharmacogenomics in the clinic. Dr. Richard Weinshilboum, co-director of the pharmacogenomics program at the Mayo Clinic, was also interviewed. Dr. Weinshilboum is a leader in the field, and has been a co-author on a number of PharmGKB publications, including multiple PharmGKB pathways and VIPs, as well as the International SSRI Pharmacogenomics Consortium (ISPC) publication. He is also a member of the Pharmacogenomics Research Network (PGRN); PharmGKB is a partner of the PGRN.

PharmGKB provides a page for clinically relevant pharmacogenomic summaries - a list of clinical annotations that contain variant-drug combinations featured in a guideline published by the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) or other medical society, or implemented at a PGRN site or a major health system, such as the Mayo Clinic. This includes associations such as codeine and CYP2D6 or thiopurine drugs and TPMT; both of these associations have CPIC guidelines. The page also features variant-drug combinations that have a preponderance of evidence showing an association, and therefore may be clinically actionable, but are not currently featured in a guideline.