Lars Mouritsen, chief scientific officer at Sorenson Genomics, said personalized medicine will be needed to reduce drug failures and drug misinteractions. He, too, mentioned genealogy records, research and a willing patient population among Utah's strengths. But all stakeholders need to be more focused on work going on among themselves, he said.

"It's important for the organizations — whether it's academic, industry or government — to be aligned, to know who's doing what in the state, (such as) whether it's a study going on at Utah State," Mouritsen said. "We don't necessarily need to be redundant in that in funding research that's going on at the University of Utah."

The various speakers noted doctors need to be receptive to the possibilities of personalized medicine, and that patients likewise need to learn more about it to realize it is an option. Paul said more than 100,000 deaths and more than 2 million hospitalizations nationwide result annually from medicinal side effects, and that most medicines are developed for the "average" person.

"We don't have all the tests we need to make personalized medicine a reality," he said. "We'll have to make new tests. . . . Best-in-class technology is already available. Myriad has it. Sorenson Genomics has it. We think the key driver for personalized medicine will be the discovery of new content, new markers."

---

E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com