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Qin J Transl Genet Genom 2019;3:10 Journal of Translational
DOI: 10.20517/jtgg.2019.05 Genetics and Genomics

Editorial Open Access

Personalized genomic medicine: a potential
individualized clinical treatment in the future

Sheng-Ying Qin

Bio-X Institutes, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 20030, China.
Correspondence to: Prof. Sheng-Ying Qin, Bio-X Institutes, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashang Road, Shanghai 200030,
China. E-mail: chinsir@sjtu.edu.cn

How to cite this article: Qin SY. Personalized genomic medicine: a potential individualized clinical treatment in the future. J Transl Genet
Genom 2019;3:10. https://doi.org/10.20517/jtgg.2019.05
Received: 19 Aug 2019 Accepted: 19 Aug 2019 Published: 27 Aug 2019

Science Editor: Sheng-Ying Qin Copy Editor: Jia-Jia Meng Production Editor: Tian Zhang

Personalized medicine is a rapidly developing approach in clinical practice that utilizes new technologies
[1]
to provide decisions in regard to the prediction, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease . In this
special issue of Personalized Genomic Medicine, we highlight certain gene therapy trends and approaches
in the field of personalized medicine. The review “MERRF and MELAS: current gene therapy trends and
approaches” primarily focuses on the current understanding of the mitochondrial biology principles
underlying the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases, Myoclonic Epilepsy with Ragged Red Fibers
(MERRF) and Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like Episodes (MELAS).
[2]
It provides a landscape perspective of gene therapy researches that were devoted to cure these diseases .
MERRF and MELAS are mitochondrial diseases that are resulted from pathogenic point mutations located
within mtDNA region. Currently, there is no cure and patients’ care is primarily focusing on treating disease’s
associated symptoms independently. The specificity of location of mtDNA within the mitochondrial matrix
and the inability to correct the disease-causing point mutation added in the difficulty to develop a more
effective pharmacological cure. Gene therapy, as an emerging field, seeks to treat or to prevent the disease
of interest using viral and/or non-viral modalities by inducing correction of a particular cellular gene via
an exogenous payload. The field of gene therapy offer promising solutions that over-perform the traditional
symptom management of patients.

In the case report of “Detection of leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 in an infant by high-throughput
targeted exome sequencing”, the authors have highlighted the importance of molecular testing to definitively
[3]
establish the diagnosis when Leukocyte adhesion deficiency type 1 (LAD-I) was suspected . This study
thoroughly investigated symptoms and genetic variations of a 43-day-old boy with severe leukocytosis,
recurrent infections, defective wound healing and hepatosplenomegaly associated with an acquired

© The Author(s) 2019. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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