Institutional profile: The Carney Centre for Pharmacogenomics: a New Zealand focus for personalized medicine research.

The integration of genetics and genomics with pharmacology and clinical medicine has enriched our understanding of all of these disciplines and is steadily providing a more complete picture of the etiology, pathophysiology and treatment of disease. To capitalize on this new knowledge requires the ability to evaluate the underlying evidence base and to test the utility of any proposed pharmacogenetic or genomic approaches to personalized medicine, within local or regional healthcare structures. The Carney Centre for Pharmacogenomics is now in its eighth year of operation, and although small by international standards, it has proven to be a valuable focus for research, training and dissemination of such knowledge in New Zealand and beyond. By focusing predominantly on research and training, the center has raised awareness about the value and limitations of pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomic approaches.