Vioxx is an example. As many as 6 percent of patients had serious complications. The other 94 percent didn't. But because no one can predict who those 6 percent will be, the drug was pulled. Improving methods of testing to determine individual traits would bring a drug like Vioxx back to those it helped, while not subjecting those it hurt to the ill effects.

Dr. Jeffrey Anderson, associate chief of cardiology at LDS Hospital and internal medicine professor at the U., told how a Critical Path-funded study involving the U., the C-Path Institute of Arizona and the FDA is helping predict safer and more effective doses of warfarin, a commonly used but potentially dangerous blood thinner, based on a patient's genetic information.

An individualized medicine approach is promising, he said, and very different. Treatment for heart disease, his specialty, "is indeed geared for the crowd," he said, "but I'm dealing with individuals."

Researchers estimate knowing the correct dose of warfarin for individuals based on their genetics could reduce costs by $1.1 billion a year.

Other innovations are being developed. Dr. Glenn Prestwich, presidential professor and director of the center for therapeutic biomaterials at the U., spoke of using tissue-engineering as part of the pathway. Imagine, he said, if you could create a small, functional version of a liver and test drugs against it to see toxicity and effectiveness. Or breast-like tissue to look at breast cancer cures. Most breathtaking, he said, is the potential to take cancer cells from a patient and put them in an animal model to test a potential cure against that person's actual cancer.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com