The Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics organized and hosted The Eleventh Annual Chapel Hill Pharmaceutical Science Conference on May 18-19, titled, “Pharmacy in the Era of Precision Medicine: From Discovery to Implementation.” The conference focused on various aspects of precision medicine, including the use of pharmacogenomics, novel pharmacologic and phenotypic approaches, quantitative clinical pharmacology in drug-treatment individualization and implementation of precision-medicine findings.
Over 200 people gathered in Chapel Hill to discuss key aspects of precision therapy. Experts from various pharmaceutical disciplines engaged researchers, educators and professionals in topics that ranged from drug development to implementation. Session topics included:
- Session 1: Pharmacogenomics in Precision Medicine
- Session 2: Novel Pharmacologic and Phenotypic Approaches to Precision Medicine
- Session 3: Role of Quantitative Clinical Pharmacology in Delivering Precision
- Session 4: Implementation of Precision Therapy
Through various presentations and panels, different aspects of precision dosing and developing research were discussed. These included
- research on personalizing T-cells engineered for cancer therapy,
- the role of the gastrointestinal microbiome on individual drug response,
- the development of new algorithms and tools based on clinical and genetic information that allows for personalized dosing, and
- discussion of pharmacogenomic assay advance and the reality of testing an individual for numerous possible drug reaction at one time.
The PharmSci planning committee recently submitted a manuscript titled, “Pharmacy in the Era of Precision Medicine: Challenges and Solutions for Future Pharmacy Practice,” that summarized the conference discussions and findings to the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education that should be published before the end of 2017.