medicine & individual genotype

ERV has just posted an interesting item on the interplay between medicine, genotype, and perceived racial differences. There’s a family of genes (CYP450) that produces the cytochrome enzymes involved in drug metabolism. Depending on an individual’s particular set of alleles, they may not be able to metabolise a given drug, or might metabolise at a different speed than predicted. The advent of cheaper genotyping techniques has made it possible to tell what variants an individual has, and to tailor drug regimes accordingly. They have also thrown up some interesting findings on ‘racial’ differences… go over and read the full story.

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