Development of novel biomedicine based on genome science

Towards the post genomic sequencing era, conventional drug discovery is drastically improving genomic technologies and computational advances. The completion of the entire genome sequence of many experimental organisms as well as the human organism allow us to compare several genomic sequences, comparative genomics, to get valuable information for gene discovery and functional genomics. Pharmacogenomic studies and chemical genomic investigations are quickly becoming fundamental techniques for genomic drug discovery. Additionally, progress in microchip and microarray technology has been stimulating genomic drug discovery studies. This paper reviews recent progress in human genome research, basic elements in the new strategy for drug discovery based on genome science, and future perspectives for the bio and pharmaceutical industries. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.