Three experts will take on the topic of genomics, discussing how every person's DNA is their "blueprint for better health" tonight at The Exploration Place.
"It's an incredibly exciting area and really what we're trying to do is just educate and inspire people about what genomics is going to do for healthcare," said Brad Popovich, one of the speakers and the former Chief Science Officer for Genome B.C.
The speakers will discuss genomics impacts on health, which he divides into four areas: cancer, infectious diseases, rare diseases and pharmacogenomics, which looks at the role genetics plays in how certain people respond to certain drugs.
Understanding a person's genomic sequence can allow doctors to select drugs that will have a chance of working, or avoid prescribing a drug that could cause harm. Each genome has an estimated 30,000 genes, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute.
"We're giving people drugs without a very keen focus on being able to determine who's going to have a bad reaction to that drug."
Dr. Nadine Caron, an associate professor with the Northern Medical Program and a surgical oncologist, often deals with this when it comes to chemotherapies, he said.
"Now with genomics, we're able to pinpoint the cause of that cancer and with that pinpointing of the cause, comes targeted therapies," Popovich said.
The best example is Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), he said. An old colleague, Dr. Brian Druker, helped design a drug that turned the death-sentence diagnosis into a manageable chronic condition for most patients.
"It was the eureka moment for the whole field of cancer," said Popovich, of Druker's discovery that used a drug that was able to stop a mutation common in CML patients.
Genomics is used with most cancer patients now.
"In some cases it's used very intensively," Popovich said, to look at the entire genome, and "in other people, it's looked at just enough to give the oncologist the information they need to get the best outcome."
Popovich also praised Caron's work with First Nations communities.
"It's been a group that hasn't been studied well," he said, but that information is needed to offer better treatment.
Not only are some diseases more prevalent in certain ethnic communities, the drugs that you would select to treat a person with breast cancer from that community might be different from a person who has breast cancer, but a different ethnic background.
"We have to build up a dialogue and trust," he said. "We really need to understand the First Nations within each of these groups. We need them to participate in this work."
Popovich can barely believe the progress genomics has made in his lifetime.
"It means that technology is now accessible to people in a very cost effective and time effective manner when it never was before," he said, noting sequencing is used for children with developmental delays or older pregnant women whose children may be more at risk for chromosomal problems.
When Popovich first started graduate school, he remembered a professor saying sequencing a human genome would never happen in either of their lifetimes.
Then, twelve years ago, the first human genome was sequenced, revealing the exact order of DNA. Now, he said it's commonplace.
"It's truly a revolution."
The Genomics B.C. talk goes from 6 to 8 p.m. today at The Exploration Place.
