Through Personalized Medicine, students will acquire the necessary knowledge to integrate advanced biomedical technologies and engineering methodologies into the design and implementation of treatments tailored to the specific needs of each patient. Additionally, advances in genomics, other omics (transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) and other molecular technologies that form the basis of personalized medicine will be examined. Emphasis will be placed on data integration and the development of health information systems for more precise and personalized decision-making in medical practice.
Titular Professors
Physiology, Pathophysiology
The objectives of the course are:
1. Understand the basic concepts of medicine and personalized medicine.
2. Learn the foundations of innovation in medicine and the value of scientific evidence.
3. Understand the molecular and pathophysiological mechanisms of diseases.
4. Introduce personalization in disease diagnosis.
5. Introduce personalization in disease prediction.
6. Learn personalization strategies in the prevention, treatment, and cure of diseases.
Unit 1. Medicine and Personalized Medicine.
Unit 2. Foundations of innovation in Medicine. Types of human studies and levels of evidence. Measures of association. Interpreting evidence in humans. Research studies in Medicine and Personalized Medicine. Sufficient evidence for diagnosis, prediction, and prevention/treatment/cure of diseases. Searching for scientific evidence in Medicine and Personalized Medicine.
Unit 3. Molecular pathophysiology of diseases. Genome, transcription, and translation. Oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and cellular proliferation. Molecular pathophysiology of chronic diseases. Other mechanisms: hepatic metabolism, intestinal integrity.
Unit 4. Personalization in disease diagnosis. Diagnosis and screening. Classical factors. Innovation in diagnosis: imaging and omics. Introduction to Medical Genetics.
Unit 5. Personalization in disease prediction. Evidence and classical factors. Innovation in prediction: genetics of polygenic diseases. Genetic variants, genetic predisposition, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and polygenic risk scores (PRS). Other predictive markers and biomarkers: omics, wearable devices.
Unit 6. Personalization in the prevention, treatment, and cure of diseases. Randomized controlled clinical trials and other strategies to establish causality. Personalization in prevention through lifestyle: nutrigenetics. Personalization of pharmacological treatments: pharmacogenetics. Personalized biological therapies: gene, cell, and immunotherapy.
The Personalized Medicine course is taught using a combination of teaching methodologies: the lecture, to convey the fundamental theoretical concepts of the course, and practical sessions where challenges related to personalized medicine are posed and solved through individual or group activities.
Students will be assessed through a continuous and global evaluation of knowledge and competencies, including midterm exams, critical appraisal activities, and evidence-search tasks, as well as a final integrative exam, requiring a minimum grade in theoretical assessments to calculate the overall mark and pass the course, with a comprehensive assessment of all contents in the resit examination.
Assessment will consider participation in practical activities, acquisition of theoretical knowledge, and the ability to apply it in real situations, including understanding the principles of personalized medicine, integration of omics and biomedical data, diagnosis, prediction, prevention, and treatments tailored to the individual needs of patients.
This course is prepared based on scientific articles and literature reviews on the topics of the subject. However, here is a list of books that cover the topics of the course:
Ginsburg, G. S., & Willard, H. F. (Eds.). (2022). Genomic and Personalized Medicine (2nd ed.). Academic Press. ISBN: 978-0128006856
Feero, W. G., & Guttmacher, A. E. (Eds.). (2017). Genomics in Medicine: Delivering on the Promise (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0199378680
Roden, D. M. (Ed.). (2019). Pharmacogenomics: Challenges and Opportunities in Therapeutic Implementation (1st ed.). Academic Press. ISBN: 978-0128126264
Snyder, M., & Gerstein, M. (2020). Personalized Omics: The Future of Precision Health (1st ed.). Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. ISBN: 978-1621823171
This course is prepared based on scientific articles and literature reviews on the topics of the subject (available in the subject slides)