n engl j med 360;8 nejm.org february 19, 2009 813 medicines should be an overarching goal for pharmacotherapy over the next decade. Pharmacogenetics has the potential to increase benefit and reduce harm in people whose drug responses are not “average.” In some cases, randomized, controlled trials will be needed to determine whether pharmacogenetic testing is worthwhile; in others, less rigorous...

Multicellular organisms have evolved processes to prevent abnormal proliferation or inappropriate tissue infiltration of cells, and these tumor suppressive mechanisms serve to prevent tissue hyperplasia, tumor development, and metastatic spread of tumors. These include potentially reversible processes such as cell cycle arrest and cellular senescence, as well as apoptotic cell death, which in c...

Genetic defects of the endosomal 'ESCRT' machinery in Drosophila have been found to cause loss of epithelial cell polarity, accompanied by overproliferation of mutant and adjacent wild-type cells. These results can be attributed to defective endocytosis of transmembrane proteins that control cell polarity and proliferation, including Crumbs and Notch.

microRNAs (miRNAs) are a new class of non-protein-coding, endogenous, small RNAs. They are important regulatory molecules in animals and plants. miRNA regulates gene expression by translational repression, mRNA cleavage, and mRNA decay initiated by miRNA-guided rapid deadenylation. Recent studies show that some miRNAs regulate cell proliferation and apoptosis processes that are important in can...