Integration of environment and disease into 'omics' analysis.
Over the last decade, 'omics' technologies have been heralded as 'dream toolboxes' that will make revolutionary changes in disease prevention and treatment possible. However, these expectations have yet to be fulfilled. These promises were made and prospects predicted without full appreciation of the intrinsic complexity of common diseases and the significant contribution of environmental factors to disease risk and causation, which have hardly been considered in the omic approaches. The concept of gene-environment interaction, as well as the limitations, difficulties and urgent need to integrate environment into omics analysis are reviewed and discussed.
Corella
Dolores
D
Jean Mayer-US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition, Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Ordovas
Jose M
JM
D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D004194:Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D004777:Environment; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D040901:Proteomics / Q000379:methods*; D012931:Social Environment