Giving Compass' Take:

· Daniel R. Weinberger discusses the future of personalized medicine and explains that there are many barriers limiting its access for all. Although personalized medicine provides the benefit of tailored treatments for serious conditions, it requires research into DNA and genes, limiting the ability to reach every person in need.

· Why are African-Americans underrepresented in genetic and neuroscience studies? What is the best way philanthropists and donors can support equal research into personalized medicine?

· Learn more about personalized medicine and its racial barriers. 

Could your medical treatment one day be tailored to your DNA? That’s the promise of “personalized medicine,” an individualized approach that has caught the imagination of doctors and researchers over the past few years. This concept is based on the idea that small genetic differences between one person and another can be used to design tailored treatments for conditions as diverse as cancer and schizophrenia.

In principle, “personalized” is not meant to mean one person but not another, though that may not turn out to be the case. Existing genetic and medical research data conspicuously underrepresent certain populations.

Case in point: Last month, researchers published a surprising study on youth suicide rates. Scientists long believed that white youth had the highest rates of suicide. But, examining data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they found that suicide rates for African-American children under the age of 13 were twice as high as whites.

This finding turned long-held assumptions about racial imbalances in mental illness on its head. It could not be explained by economic circumstances, suggesting that there are other factors at play, perhaps even genetic factors. Suicide is a complicated personal act, but science has shown that genes play an important role.

Without studies focused on the African-American brain, scientists will struggle to fully understand how any possible unique genetic risk in the African-American population translates into prevention and treatment for virtually all disorders that involve the brain, including suicide.

Researchers have to invest in correcting this shortcoming before the personalized medicine train is so far out of the station that the African-American community cannot get on it.

Read the full article about personalized medicine by Daniel R. Weinberger at The Conversation.