Welcome to the UK Pharmacogenetics and Stratified Medicine Network
The UK Pharmacogenetics and Stratified Medicine Network is dedicated to developing collaborative partnerships between healthcare professionals, academic researchers, industry partners, regulatory bodies and patients to synergise research into stratified medicine across the UK and support its adoption into the clinic.
What is stratified medicine?
Stratified medicine (also described as personalised, precision, or P4 Predictive, Preventive, Personalized and Participatory medicine) uses technical advances in genetic sequencing techniques, and bespoke diagnostic tests, to prescribe the drug that is most likely to have a positive therapeutic effect, at the optimum dose and in the right combination with other medication, to patients at the start of their treatment. Thus patients have their treatment based on their genetic profile, molecular basis of their disease, risk of disease, or response to a particular drug therapy, rather than the signs or symptoms of their disease.
Traditionally patients have been prescribed their medication based on the signs and symptoms of their disease. If a treatment is not successful patients have to be prescribed an alternative medication.
Academic and clinical research has revealed that most diseases have multiple subtypes that require different treatment approaches. Pharmacogenetic data and bespoke diagnostic tests enable clinicians to identify the subcategory of disease and offer patients the most effective treatments from the outset of their treatment.
What is pharmacogenetics?
Pharmacogenetics is the study of inherited genetic differences in drug metabolic pathways which can affect an individual’s response to drugs. These genetic differences may result in a positive response to a drug therapy or may cause an adverse drug reaction.
In symptoms based approach to medicine patients are prescribed their medication based on the signs and symptoms of their disease. If a treatment is not successful patients have to be prescribed an alternative medication. In stratified medicine pharmacogenetic data and bespoke diagnostic tests are used to stratify patients into the subcategory of their disease allowing them to receive the most effective drug treatments, at the optimum dose, and the right combination with other medications at the start of treatment. Stratified medicine is also described by different organisations as Precision/Personalised/P4 (Predictive, Preventive, Personalized and Participatory) medicine.
The UK Pharmacogenetics and Stratified Medicine Network bring together the multidisciplinary groups of professionals that are needed to deliver stratified medicine to patients in the clinic. Through the Network groups of experts from academia, the healthcare sector, regulatory organisations and patient groups have the opportunity to collaborate to analyse patient samples, and interpret their data to stratify patients into the subcategory of their disease, then identify novel drug target sites and develop the much needed new drugs and diagnostics to make stratified medicine a reality in the clinic.
Website
Our website is a “one stop shop” providing an amazing amount of information on the activities within the field of stratified medicine. Visitors spend an average time of 15 minutes browsing the site and viewing ~7 pages. The website is popular with a high rate of ~ 70% return traffic.
In a recent survey 90% of responders said the website provided the information they wanted to find and 82% had recommended the Network to their colleagues.
The website is attracting worldwide recognition and we welcome the visitors across the globe to interact with the Network.
Almost 20% of our site traffic originates from within the USA.
Founder and steering committee
The Network was first launched in 2010 by Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed and is very fortunate to have the support of key representatives from across all disciplines. Together they offer their expertise and influence to support the network’s aim of increasing the development and adoption of stratified medicine.
Activities of the Network
The Network has built an excellent reputation for the quality of the events that it has hosted. Annual open meetings offer talks from academic/clinical experts, senior representatives from industry, regulators and patient groups. These meetings attract leading members of the stratified medicine community so offer great networking opportunities.
Through focused workshops the Network invites leading policy makers to debate topics of interest and address the challenges of the wider adoption of stratified medicine.
Focus workshop titles:-
- Drug response for stratified medicine in terms of drug efficacy, variability and safety October 2014
- Biobank and biorepositories for stratified medicine April 2015
- Opportunities for drug repositioning October 2015
- Patient participation in stratified medicine November 2015
- Re-engineering clinical pathways to incorporate stratified medicine April 2016
- MHRA joint workshop June 2016
- Health economics of stratified medicine October 2016
- NIHR-CRN joint workshop October 2016
- Stratified Medicine in Primary Care April 2017
- Entrepreneurship, Disruptive Innovation and Personalised Medicine June 2017
Recordings of these events are available here. The findings of the workshops are sent for publication in leading scientific journals.
What we offer
Free membership; simply fill in the online form
Opportunities to highlight your research activities and develop multidisciplinary research partnerships
Bringing together representatives from all disciplines to discuss and support the adoption of stratified medicine
Find out all you ever wanted to know about stratified medicine by browsing the website
Are you interested in joining the UK Pharmacogenetics & Stratified Medicine Network?