Table 1 Potential contribution of pharmacogenetic approaches

Discovery of new drug targets

Agnostic genome-wide approaches are not contingent on prior biological knowledge

Mechanistic insight

Discoveries of new pathways may illuminate the pathophysiology of the disease process that is targeted by a given drug

Nosology of disease

Understanding of molecular pathways can help explain disease heterogeneity and classify its various subtypes

Fine-mapping

Detecting a drug-gene interaction can pinpoint the specific gene under a genomic association signal that is likely to harbor the causal genetic variant

Personalized medicine

Genetic determinants of drug response may result in individualized approaches to therapy based on the likelihood of effectiveness and tolerance