Emerging real-time technologies in molecular medicine and the evolution of integrated ‘pharmacomics’ approaches to personalized medicine and drug discovery

The advent of real-time macromolecular sequencing is opening the way for new levels of understanding of dynamic biological states and new approaches to point-of-care diagnosis and drug discovery. This fast-growing area promises unprecedented capacity to develop detailed descriptions of biosystems in health and disease that integrate features from both inherent trait analysis (e.g. by genotyping) and dynamic analysis of transient states (e.g. by transcriptome or proteome typing). This evolving, integrated ‘pharmacomics’ will facilitate the characterization and monitoring of disease states and drug responses in terms of perturbations of biosystems from optimal states. This review considers how the latest generation of advances in ultra-rapid macromolecular sequencing will accelerate the evolution of personalized medicine and more systematic, rational drug discovery.