Molecular Biology and Predictive Medicine

In recent years, biomedical research has entered a phase of impetuous acceleration, a kind of "new frontier" which suggests vast horizons of next conquest.

A decisive contribution to the development of biomedical research is due to the contribution of new knowledge that has occurred in the context of molecular biology, that is to say to the branch of the biology that studies the structure and functions of the molecules that build all living systems: the DNA, the RNA and proteins.

Moreover, thanks to these highly specialized and innovative diagnostic methods, it is possible to detect whether a person is a carrier of genetic mutations correlated with the onset of certain diseases, also hereditarily transmitted.

The PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique, more than any other, has revolutionized molecular biology and provided to doctors and researchers a diagnostic tool with potentially limitless applications. In addition, the conclusion of the “Human Genome Project” has allowed to reveal the DNA sequence of the entire human genome and to identify gradually the genes involved in the development and expression of the human organism characters, both normal (physiological) and rare (variants) or abnormal (pathological).

These information led to enormous progress in the ability to reveal diseases based on genotype, to identify the conditions of greatest risk related to the presence of the genetic susceptibility and to identify the best therapy for the specific health problem of a patient. These characteristics are the basis of a new model of medicine, the so-called “Predictive medicine”.

With predictive medicine, in case of diagnosed genetic mutation, clinically “normal” people could become “pre-patients” or “at risk of sickness”, thus avoiding in the future to become “real patients”.