This is visualized as more effective preventive care and disease treatments with better specificity, tailored to the genetic makeup of each patient.
A number of think tanks, universities, and governments (including the U.S., UK, and Australia) have started public health genomics projects.
This has been highlighted in a study in 2005 by Cogent Research, that found when American citizens were asked what they thought the strongest drawback was in using genetic information, they listed "misuse of information/invasion of privacy" as the single most important problem.
Authors of the document explore four broad categories of ethical and policy issues related to pharmacogenetics: information, resource, equity and control.
In the introduction to the report, the authors clearly state that the development and application of pharmacogenetics depend on scientific research, but that policy and administration must provide incentives and restraints to ensure the most productive and just use of this technology.
For example, the DNA of a latent herpesvirus integrates into the host's chromosome and propagates through cell replication, although it is not part of the organism's genome, and was not present at the birth of the individual.
It was found that the latent herpesvirus caused an increase in interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), cytokines which both lead to activation of macrophages and resistance to bacterial infection.
Continued research will be needed to determine the epidemiology of H5N1 infection and whether genetic, behavioral, immunologic, and environmental factors contribute to case clustering.
Infectious diseases in humans appear highly polygenic with many loci implicated but only a minority of these convincingly replicated.
[11] Animal model studies and whole genome screens can be used to identify potential regions on a gene that suggest evidence of tuberculosis susceptibility.
[10] Further studies will be needed to determine genetic susceptibility to other infectious diseases and ways public health officials can prevent and test for these infections to enhance the concept of personalized medicine.
HUGENet, which was initiated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.), is accomplishing the integration of this type of information with the genome data, in a form available for analysis.
[15] Recent research has linked variants in the gap junction beta 2 (GJB2) gene to nonsyndromic prelingual sensorineural hearing loss.
Infections such as rubella and meningitis and low birth weight and artificial ventilation, are known risk factors for hearing loss, but perhaps knowing this, as well as genetic information, will help with early intervention.
Further testing is needed, especially in determining the role of GJB2 variants and environmental factors on a population level, however initial studies show promise when using genetic information along with newborn screening.
Pharmacogenomics refers to the use of DNA-based genotyping in order to target pharmaceutical agents to specific patient populations in the design of drugs.
Yet many of these companies claim to benefit the consumer, the tests performed are either not applicable or often result in common sense recommendations.
Increased risk for neural tube defects[18] and elevated homocysteine levels[19] have been associated with the MTHFR C677T polymorphism.
In 2002, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health identified the blueprint of genes and enzymes in the body that enable sulforaphane, a compound found in broccoli and other vegetables, to prevent cancer and remove toxins from cells.
The discovery was made using a "gene chip," which allows researchers to monitor the complex interactions of thousands of proteins on a whole genome rather than one at time.
[22] Members of the public are continually asking how obtaining their genetic blueprint will benefit them, and why they find that they are more susceptible to diseases that have no cures.
Validating cost effective tools can help restore importance of basic medical practices (e.g. family history) in comparison to technology intensive investigations.
For example, the influenza epidemic of 1918, as well as the recent cases of human fatality due to H5N1 (avian flu), both illustrate the potentially dangerous sequence of immune responses to this virus.
Especially in industrialized and rapidly developing economies, the high rate of allergic and reactive respiratory disease, autoimmune conditions and cancers are also in part linked to aberrant immune responses that are elicited as the communities' genomes encounter swiftly changing environments.
Public health genomics as a whole will absolutely require a rigorous understanding of the changing face of immune responses.
Most of the diseases that are screened for are extremely rare, single-gene disorders that are often autosomal recessive conditions and are not readily identifiable in neonates without these types of tests.
Especially as costs have come down, newborn genetic screening offers "an excellent return on the expenditure of public health dollars".
[23] Because the risks and benefits of genomic sequencing for newborns are still not fully understood, the BabySeq Project, led by Robert C. Green of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Alan H. Beggs of Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) has been gathering critical research on newborn sequencing since 2015 as part of the Newborn Sequencing In Genomic medicine and public HealTh consortium (NSIGHT), which received a five-year grant of $25 million from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).