Personlize Medical Care

Often patients realize that certain drugs are ineffective or harmful to them only after starting taking them. Mayo Clinic Project is a landmark plan that will give doctors the genetic information they need to choose drugs that work best and minimise side effects. Volunteers will have all six billion letters of their genome read, stored and linked to their medical records to help doctors prescribe more effective drugs and other therapies.

The trial reflects a growing trend in medicine to use genetic information to identify those patients who will benefit most from a drug and those who will respond better to an alternative.

Other medical centres around the world that are thinking of introducing their own whole genome tests will be watching the trial with interest.