Precision medicine: Enabling healthcare progress in the twenty-first century

Abstract

Medicine in the twentieth century was dominated by the evidence-based paradigm. Following the genomic revolution at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the precision medicine movement aims to move forward from population-based studies and focus on the individual patient. Although initially conceptualized based on the power of genomics, precision medicine should not be confounded with molecular medicine. Rather, the overarching intent of precision medicine is to merge genomic, biological, behavioral, environmental, and other data on individuals to identify drivers of health that might support personalized healthcare decision-making. Precision medicine relies on the constant development of technology to enable mechanistic dissection of biological pathways driving disease and innovative drug design. This chapter illustrates current state-of-the-art applications of the precision medicine concept, from new trends in genetic diagnostics and the advent of RNA therapeutics, gene therapy, and genome editing to breakthroughs in cancer treatment and the microbiome as a new research frontier.