Drug Safety Based Upon Genetic Variability

Since its dedication in 2006, the Jayne Haines Center for Pharmacogenomics and Drug Safety (JHCPG) has been a pioneering influence in the area of genetically based drug therapy research, a topic that has gained widespread attention in the pharmaceutical sciences.

The Human Genome Project did not only help scientists identify and map the genes that make up our DNA — it highlighted some of the pharmacotherapeutic challenges of one-size-fits-all drug development and treatment. This led to the modern approach of pharmacogenomics, whose focus is to improve the safety of drug response in patients based on genetic variation.

Toward this end, JHCPG facilitates collaborative research among academic, government and private institutions to support translational research, decrease toxicity in drug therapy and promote awareness of genetic variability as a risk factor within the healthcare community.

These are some of the ways in which we are working toward optimizing drug combinations for individuals’ unique genetic compositions. 

Jayne Haines Areas of Research

The center is engaged in studies in the following areas, among others:

• The effects of genotype on drug response
• Molecular mechanisms of drug action
• Genetic polymorphisms
• Pre-clinical and clinical collaborations
• Drug discovery, in collaboration with the Moulder Center
• New drug target discovery
• Genotyping of collected DNA

The list of publications from the Haines Center