Basic and Preclinical Research for Personalized Medicine

Abstract

Basic and preclinical research founded the progress of personalized medicine by providing a prodigious amount of integrated profiling data and by enabling the development of biomedical applications to be implemented in patient-centered care and cures. If the rapid development of genomics research boosted the birth of personalized medicine, further development in omics technologies has more recently improved our understanding of the functional genome and its relevance in profiling patients’ phenotypes and disorders. Concurrently, the rapid biotechnological advancement in diverse research areas enabled uncovering disease mechanisms and prompted the design of innovative biological treatments tailored to individual patient genotypes and phenotypes. Research in stem cells enabled clarifying their role in tissue degeneration and disease pathogenesis while providing novel tools toward the development of personalized regenerative medicine strategies. Meanwhile, the evolving field of integrated omics technologies ensured translating structural genomics information into actionable knowledge to trace detailed patients’ molecular signatures. Finally, neuroscience research provided invaluable models to identify preclinical stages of brain diseases. This review aims at discussing relevant milestones in the scientific progress of basic and preclinical research areas that have considerably contributed to the personalized medicine revolution by bridging the bench-to-bed gap, focusing on stem cells, omics technologies, and neuroscience fields as paradigms.

Mesenchymal stem cells and their extracellular vesicles in urological cancers: Prostate, bladder, and kidney

“…The relative simplicity of extracting them from different sources, such as BM, adipose tissue, and umbilical cord, coupled with their minimal immunogenicity, positions MSCs as an appealing option for regenerative treatments (Andrzejewska et al, 2021). With ongoing research, the exploitation of the varied and beneficial attributes of MSCs presents the prospect of transforming personalized medicine and tackling an extensive array of medical obstacles, including conditions like cancer (Lattanzi et al, 2021).…”

Stable Housekeeping Genes in Bone Marrow, Adipose Tissue, and Amniotic Membrane-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells for Orthopedic Regenerative Medicine Approaches

“…This heterogeneity in MSC-enriched or expanded products leaves the door open for the issue of the most appropriate treatment for the pathology and the patients under the hat of the personalized medicine paradigm [7]. For this reason, a deep characterization and knowledge of the therapeutic products at several levels, from molecular to biochemical and eventually physiological, is mandatory to improve clinical indications [8]. Thus, the reliable evaluation of differences in gene expression of key players, both MSC donor/sourcespecific and pathology-related, is of utmost importance as the first fingerprinting step.…”

Structured tracking of alcohol reinforcement (STAR) for basic and translational alcohol research

“…Integration across the highly diverse subfields of alcohol research in nonhuman subjects is needed to maximize the insight and advances gained [14,15]. Indeed, retrospective evaluations of animal disease models indicate the utility of frameworks which explicitly create avenues for researchers to synthesize findings and provide continuity across subfields [16][17][18][19][20][21]. In the absence of purposeful development of methodological solutions, there is a natural tendency for fields to split along basic and translational lines as highly specialized paradigms are pushed towards partially divergent goals: basic investigations require flexibility of experimental design as hypotheses are rapidly tested and revised, while animal models intended for preclinical to clinical translation emphasize standardized protocols to allow comparison of specific outcome measures [22,23].…”

“…The tendency for basic experimental studies and preclinical testing to use non-overlapping methodologies, without explicit efforts to integrate conclusions, impedes progress and translation [18,[24][25][26]. Accordingly, utilizing flexible procedures that allow for experimenter-specific modifications while retaining conceptual consistency, as opposed to rigid protocols, is likely to catalyze breakthrough discoveries [16,[27][28][29][30].…”