Genomic medicine: past, present and future

Person-centred care has been a top priority for many years—now personalised medicine targeted at patients' individual genomes is at the top of the agenda and is beginning to improve the way treatment is delivered to people living with rare diseases and hard-to-treat cancers.

The ambitious target of sequencing 100,000 genomes by the end of 2018 has now been hit (Robinson, 2018), and a new even bolder goal to sequence 5 million genomes in the next 5 years has been set (The Pharmaceutical Journal, 2018). The 100,000 genomes project was launched in 2012 by former prime minister David Cameron, who set the initial target to sequence 100,000 genomes by the end of 2017. This was later extended by a year but 100,000 genomes in 6 years, particularly when it took 13 years to sequence the very first one via the Human Genome Project (Robinson, 2017), is impressive nonetheless.