The Agony and Ecstasy of “OMIC” Technologies in Drug Development

Over the last decade we have witnessed a fundamental change in how biomedical research is carried out and we can now assess the impact of the Human Genome Project on drug discovery and development. Advances in “omics” technologies (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabonomics) were touted as having the potential to revolutionise our approach to disease diagnosis, prognostication and development of novel therapeutics. However, the promise of rapid advances in medicine “from the lab bench to the bedside” has not manifested as of yet. Indeed it appears that the translational applications of genomic-based research have preceded the development of both (i) a conceptual framework for disease understanding and (ii) effective tools that can exploit the vast amounts of data derived from these efforts. In reality great progress has been made, however understanding processes such as disease progression (or drug response) requires systematic insight into dynamic (and temporal) differences in gene regulation, interaction and function. This review will discuss “omic” technologies with the emphasis upon advances in our understanding of the human genome derived transcriptome (RNA), and its proteome (proteins), while focusing upon the translation of this information into the drug development paradigm.