Richard Weinshilboum: Pharmacogenetics: The future is here!

Richard Weinshilboum has a no-nonsense attitude about pharmacogenetics. He is enthusiastic about the practicalities and ramifications of the field's solid accomplishments, but he carefully measures statements that might feed the hype that is en courant about the brave new postgenomic world of drug therapy. Although the terms "pharmacogenomics" and "pharmacogenetics" are often used interchangeably (a linguistic quirk to which Weinshilboum does not object), he consistently avoids the latter, perhaps more glitzy, word. Weinshilboum has spent over thirty years as a clinical pharmacologist, exploring in particular the variability of drug metabolism that occurs among patients as a function of their genetic constitution. The research efforts from his line of work have materialized into clinical application and have helped to set the stage for the individualization of drug treatment according to each patient's genetic constitution-not yet on the genomewide scale that Weinshilboum enthusiastically foresees, but certainly as pertains to multiple genes and drugs for any given patient. The interview with Weinshilboum occurred at this year's annual meeting of ASPET, at which he was conferred the Harry Gold Award in Clinical Pharmacology.