Dr. Pieter Cullis, director of the Life Sciences Institute and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia discusses his new book The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease Are About to Change Forever (Greystone, 2015), with Joseph Planta.

The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease Are About to Change Forever by Pieter Cullis (Greystone, 2015). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Personalized Medicine Revolution

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

I could not have told you what a genome is, but after reading the new book from Dr. Pieter Cullis, I could try. And after reading it, I could understand the advancements in technology that have brought us to the point where, thanks to the technological advancements we’re on our way to diagnosing diseases earlier, thus treating them earlier and providing ourselves with longer and better qualities of life. That’s Dr. Cullis’s gift, the ability to distil otherwise challenging science into something eminently readable and accessible. He also has a great ability with the language that you wouldn’t have expected from a book like this. The book is called The Personalized Medicine Revolution: How Diagnosing and Treating Disease Are About to Change Forever. We’ll very soon, likely be able to one day get medical treatment based on the unique markers of our genome, which is different from today when thousands of North Americans die because of an adverse reaction to a prescribed drug. The figure’s 100,000 deaths a year, because the drugs don’t work on the person’s specific genetic make-up. We’ll soon see more than a one-size-fits-all approach to medical care, and that will lead to more proactive care and healing. But there are implications to all this. The costs are prohibitive at the moment. I’ll ask Dr. Cullis about the lack of will on governments to implement more of this analysis and testing. And we’ll also talk about the ethical dilemmas that invariably arise. Pieter Cullis is director of the Life Sciences Institute, and a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia. He’s also chair of the BC Personalized Medicine Initiative. He’s received the Prix Galien, Canada’s premiere award for developing new drugs to treat disease. The book is published by Greystone. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Dr. Pieter Cullis; Dr. Cullis, good morning.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.2MB)

Subscribe: RSS