Pharmacogenomics Western New England University

Overview

Pharmacogenomics is a fast-growing field that explores a patient’s DNA sequence to determine how they are most likely to respond to medications. Pharmacogenomics supports precision medicine, which incorporates a patient’s genetics, environment, and lifestyle to create a personalized treatment plan that will best suit the patient. The goal of this modern approach to medication therapy is to optimize response and beneficial outcomes while limiting adverse effects and toxicities.

Career

Personalized or precision medicine refers to using patient-specific information to optimize their treatment. Pharmacogenomics is one aspect of personalized medicine that evaluates a patient’s genetic makeup and determines how that may affect their response to medication therapy.

The fields of pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine are growing fast, with a number of traditional and innovative career opportunities rapidly expanding as the costs of genetic tests decrease and more knowledge is gained about the potential for pharmacogenomics to transform patient care. 

Career opportunities for graduates

Graduates from Pharmacogenomics programme from Western New England University can expect to follow a number of different career paths once they complete our program. Our curriculum was designed to provide solid foundational knowledge, as well as build a broad range of skills, so alumni can enter the workforce in various areas within the field, including the options listed below. In addition, graduates often continue their education, for example, in Genetic Counseling or in a Doctoral Program, to expand upon their expertise.

• Laboratory researcher or technician – these types of positions could be at academic, government, or clinical institutions, as well as industrial pharmaceutical or genetic testing facilities to study how genetic variation affects response to medication, analyze genetic data, or develop and perform genetic tests.
• Clinical research – these types of positions could be at academic institutions or health care systems, as well as insurance companies, to study the benefits of using genetic testing to optimize patient care.
• Clinical implementation – these types of liaison or administrative positions, at clinical institutions that are implementing pharmacogenomics for their patients, serve as experts who are aware of all aspects of this process and can work closely with genetic counselors, physicians, and/or pharmacists.
• Education – these types of consulting or academic positions are needed to educate students currently in professional clinical programs, as well as active clinicians who may not have received education in this field as students in the past.
• Regulatory Institutions – these types of positions would be within government offices, such as the Food and Drug Administration’s Division of Translational and Precision Medicine, which oversees precision medicine strategies in drug development.
• Clinical laboratory or genetic testing facility analyst – these types of positions would be in clinical or industrial genetic testing laboratories where patient samples are evaluated for genetic variants, including disease risk, pharmacogenomic, or organ transplant variants.