Genome Medicine: the future of medicine

Abstract

In the past decade, scientific discovery in medicine has progressed at an increasingly rapid rate, and genomic, post-genomic and bioinformatic approaches have played key roles in this progression. Our growing understanding of the human genome and proteome promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine in the 21st century. The last year has seen the publication of an acute myeloid leukemia genome, the initiation of the 1000 Genomes Project and the International Human Microbiome Consortium, and the progression of a number of other important collaborations, such as the Copy Number Variation Project and the Cancer Genome Atlas. Furthermore, a plethora of genome-wide association studies have been undertaken, associating specific loci to a variety of diseases. These discoveries, as well as continuing advances in genome sequencing technologies, bring us several steps closer to individualized medicine, a concept that has captured the imaginations of practitioners of medicine, politicians, and the public alike. In these exciting and fast-moving times, there is a clear need for the scientific community to keep abreast of the latest groundbreaking genomic and post-genomic research across medical disciplines. To this end, we are proud to launch Genome Medicine. Genome Medicine publishes important results in genomic and post-genomic medicine, discusses the importance of these results for clinical practice, highlights the major issues surrounding genomic medicine, and comments on the progress of scientific discovery.