Gene expression profiling can bring significant improvements to disease profiling and diagnoses based on genetic disposition.
Recent technology advances in this area are in fact enabling personalised medicine, where physicians provide patients with tailor-made treatment plans to fight diseases. Cases of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological disorders stand to benefit the most from these developments, since these conditions manifest differently in each patient.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Advances in Gene Expression Profiling, finds that gene expression profiling technology has established a presence in North America and most of Europe. Emerging markets, on the other hand, include India, China, South Korea and Australia.
“Physicians increasingly rely on gene expression profiling to get a thorough picture of the patient’s genetic profile prior to arriving at a diagnosis and recommending a course of treatment,” noted Technical Insights Research Analyst Madhumitha Rangesa. “With multiple disease diagnostic tests currently undergoing clinical trials and approval procedures, patients will soon have access to interpretable genetic profiles – a definite way to boost patient awareness and encourage preventative care.”
However, regulatory barriers pose a huge challenge for providers and life science firms, mainly due to the lack of standardisation. The industry should focus on creating a standard platform for gene expression profiling scoring high on accuracy, sensitivity, and performance. In addition, the industry must invest in more clinical trials to enhance the credibility of gene expression profiling tests and create standardised protocols to enable life science firms to conduct clinical trials across developer platforms.
Having tight protocols in place will also support the development of data storage, management, and visualisation platforms. These platforms will be necessary as the declining costs of next generation sequencing (NGS) lead to a boom in raw genetic data production. Large investments are already taking place across the industry, with life science firms actively trying to enter the software world and software players looking to capture start-up genetic profiling companies. Cloud-based data tools for accessing genomic information will prove particularly useful in related industries including pharmacogenomics and oncology diagnostics.
“Gene expression profiling will continue to grow rapidly over the next five years as consumer awareness grows,” stated Rangesa. “In fact, gene expression profiling will become a crucial aspect across pharmacogenomics, direct to consumer genetic testing and academic research.”
