[Perspectives on postgenome medicine: Hematological diseases].

With advances in DNA chip(DNA microarray) technology, it has become possible to obtain genome-wide gene-expression profiling. This novel technology is now applied to the study of molecular pathogenesis, differential diagnosis, and prediction of prognosis in the field of hematological malignancies. Importantly, the list of informative genes includes new markers of diseases, which will be utilized for further investigation. As for clinical gene therapy, it has been criticized for promising too much and providing too little during the last 10 years. In 1999, however, the success of hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy was reported in the patients with X-SCID(X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency). The gene therapy of hemophilia B using AAV(adeno-associated virus) vector has also successfully started. Genetic manipulation will be applied to the treatment of various diseases with the development of novel technologies.