title: The emergence of genome-based drug repositioning.
abstract: In a pair of papers in this issue of Science Translational Medicine, Butte et al. provide a concrete example of how reinterpreting and comparing genome-wide metrics allows us to effectively hypothesize which drugs from one disease-indication can be repurposed for another disease. The shift toward integrative genome-wide computational approaches has precedence in insightful scalar theories of biological information. Here, we discuss how this recent work in drug repurposing adheres to and takes advantage of the concepts surrounding this information paradigm.
authors.affiliation: Section of Genetic Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. ylussier@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Yves A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Lussier
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D055808:Drug Discovery / Q000379:methods*; D058492:Drug Repositioning; D005632:Fructose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000077236:Topiramate
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D000077236:Topiramate; D005632:Fructose