Forensic Pharmacogenetics

Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics are gaining importance both in the clinical setting and in forensic pathology to investigate causes of death where no findings emerge from autopsy, and in the medical liability arena where scientific issues meet the justice system . Generally speaking, Pharmacogenetics is the study of how genetic variations give rise to differences in drug response, while pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the application of genomic technologies to the discovery of new therapeutic targets. Depending on the purpose, pharmacogenetics can be used to define applications of single gene sequences or a limited set of multiple gene sequences, but not gene expression or genome-wide scans, to study variations in DNA sequences related to drug action and disposition. Pharmacogenomics can be used to define applications of genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) scans and genome-wide gene expression analyses to study variations influencing drug action. Pharmacogenetics is ...