Translating genetic discoveries to improvements in cardiovascular care: the path to personalized medicine.

Research and development has provided us with several solutions to reduce morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular disease. More solutions are anticipated in the areas of clinical medicine, personal handheld devices, and DNA technology that will continue to enhance the era of personalized medicine. Genome-wide association studies have recently identified genetic variants on chromosome 9 (interval 9p21) and chromosome 4 (4q25) that confer increased risk for myocardial infarction and atrial fibrillation, respectively. The regions on these chromosomes containing the SNPs associated with disease contain no known genes - creating a challenge for scientists. Unraveling the code on these chromosomes may reveal a deeper insight into the mechanisms underlying disease and the design of new therapeutics to prevent or slow the progression of the disease.