The Road to Precision Medicine

Medicine and research go hand and hand. Without research to develop and test new treatments and better understand disease pathology, there cannot be advancements in medicine. Historically, clinical research only involved certain populations. And so, many of the one-size-fits-all treatments that were developed were not the most optimal treatments for all individuals. With greater clinical research efforts on specific populations and individuals, researchers can develop more targeted therapies. Sanguine offers translational research participation opportunities in which volunteers can donate biospecimen for the purposes of biomarker or discovery research. We aim to make research participation more accessible, which is why we conduct in-home appointments. Learn more about current studies here.  

 

What is Translational Research?

Translational research is a type of clinical research that allows for better understanding of diseases and development of treatments that are safe and effective. Researchers may conduct translational research before taking a certain medication to clinical trial. Translational research often involves in-vitro testing on biospecimen. Biospecimen are biological materials like blood, saliva, stool, and urine that contain a vast amount of information stored in the form of genes, proteins, and cells. According to Carolyn C. Compton, M.D, Ph.D, and Director of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), “The biospecimen is, in truth, the center of the universe of molecular medicine. It’s where all the molecules are, so it represents the biology of the patient and the biology of their disease.” Translational research with biospecimen allows researchers to

  • Identify and validate new biomarkers for a disease
  • Identify how diseases progress and vary
  • Group patients as more or less likely to respond to specific medication
  • Develop screening tests that detect biomarkers associated with certain stages or subtypes of a disease 

Advancements in clinical research such as translational research are helping pave the way for more personalized treatments and precision medicine. 

 

What is Precision Medicine?

With greater and more diverse research participation, we can pave the way for personalized medicine. Personalized medicine involves the development of treatments and strategies that are more tailored for individuals’ specific needs. Each individual has a unique genome that interacts with their specific environmental factors. Precision medicine combines patient data like genes, environment, and lifestyle to develop tools that can more accurately and quickly diagnose and prevent medical conditions, and personalized treatments with fewer side effects. At Sanguine, we believe that precision medicine is the future of medicine, which is why we strive to elevate patient engagement in medical research.

 

By Neelem Sheikh

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