01 Aug2014
Yeast Provides Genetic Clues to Drug Response
A UBC study may help researchers better understand how and why some drugs work and others don’t. (Source: UBC)
Why do people respond differently to the same drug? For the first time, researchers have untangled genetic and environmental factors related to drug reactions, bringing us a step closer to predicting how a drug will affect us.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia exposed 6,000 strains of yeast to 3,000 drugs. Yeast strains were modified so their response could be measured. Researchers found that the yeast cells have about 50 main ways in which they react to any drug.
There have been several news reports that the world’s first dengue 