Conference Scene: Pediatric Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine

A major challenge for clinicians, pharmaceutical companies and regulatory agencies is to better understand the relative contributions of ontogeny and genetic variation to observed variability in drug disposition and response across the pediatric age spectrum from preterm and term newborns, to infants, children and adolescents. Extrapolation of adult experience with pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine to pediatric patients of different ages and developmental stages, is fraught with many challenges. Compared with adults, pediatric pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics involves an added measure of complexity as variability owing to developmental processes, or ontogeny, is superimposed upon genetic variation. Furthermore, some pediatric diseases have no adult correlate or are more prevalent in children compared with adults, and several adverse drug reactions are unique to children, or occur at a higher frequency in children. The primary objective of this conference was to initiate an ongoing series of annual meetings on ‘Pediatric Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine’ organized by the Center for Personalized Medicine and Therapeutic Innovation and Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Medical Therapeutics at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, MO, USA. The primary goals of the inaugural meeting were: to bring together clinicians, basic and translational scientists and allied healthcare practitioners, and engage in a multi- and cross-disciplinary dialog aimed at implementing personalized medicine in pediatric settings; to provide a forum for the presentation and the dissemination of research related to the application of pharmacogenomic strategies to investigations of variability of drug disposition and response in children; to explore the ethical, legal and societal implications of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine that are unique to children; and finally, to create networking opportunities for stimulating discussion, cooperation and collaboration to devise strategies to address the research needs identified.