hypertension, defined as a systolic/diastolic blood pressure of 140/90 mmhg or greater, is estimated to carry a three-fold increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (cvds). evidence from genome-wide association studies has identified an association between blood pressure and the gene encoding the folate-metabolising enzyme, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (mthfr). recent meta-ana...

In recent years we have seen the emergence of “personalised medicine.” This development can be seen as the logical product of reductionism in medical science in which disease is increasingly understood in molecular terms. Personalised medicine has flourished as a consequence of the application of neoliberal principles to health care, whereby a commercial and social need for personalised medicin...

In its broadest definition, systems biology is the application of a ‘systems’ way of thinking about and doing cell biology [1]. By implication, this also invites us to consider a systems approach in the context of medicine and the treatment of disease. In particular, the idea that systems biology can form the basis of a personalised, predictive medicine [2, 3] will require that much closer atte...

Personalised medicine is widely considered as the way of the future for medicine. However, progress in cancer, with a few outstanding exceptions, has fallen below expectations because of the challenges of tumour heterogeneity and clonal evolution. In both benign and malignant disease, diseases caused by single genetic alterations are more amenable to precision medicine approaches. However, most...