Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Future of Medicine: Models in Predictive
Diagnostics and Personalized Medicine
Babette Regierer, Valeria Zazzu, Ralf Sudbrak, Alexander Kühn
and Hans Lehrach
Abstract Molecular medicine is undergoing fundamental changes driving the
whole area towards a revolution in modern medicine. The breakthrough was
generated the fast-developing technologies in molecular biology since the first
draft sequence of the human genome was published. The technological advances
enabled the analysis of biological samples from cells and organs to whole
organisms in a depth that was not possible before. These technologies are
increasingly implemented in the medical and health care system to study diseases
and refine diagnostics. As a consequence, the understanding of diseases and the
health status of an individual patient is now based on an enormous amount of data
that can only be interpreted in the context of the body as a whole. Systems biology
as a new field in the life sciences develops new approaches for data integration and
interpretation. Systems medicine as a specialized aspect of systems biology
combines in an interdisciplinary approach all expertise necessary to decipher the
human body in all its complexity. This created new challenges in the area of
information and communication technologies to provide the infrastructure and
technology needed to cope with the data flood that will accompany the next
generation of medicine. The new initiative 'IT Future of Medicine' aims at driving
this development even further and integrates not only molecular data (especially
genomic information), but also anatomical, physiological, environmental, and
lifestyle data in a predictive model approach—the 'virtual patient'—that will
allow the clinician or the general practitioner to predict and anticipate the optimal
treatment for the individual patient. The application of the virtual patient model
will allow truly personalized medicine.
B. Regierer
Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Am Mühlenberg 13,
14476 Potsdam, Germany
B. Regierer
Life Glimmer GmbH, Markelstr. 39A, 12163 Berlin, Germany
V. Zazzu
R. Sudbrak
H. Lehrach (
)
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Ihnestr. 63-73, 14195 Berlin, Germany
e-mail: lehrach@molgen.mpg.de
A. Kühn
Alacris Theranostics GmbH, Fabeckstr. 60-62, 14195 Berlin, Germany
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