Clinical pharmacology: the science of therapeutics

Major advances in fundamental mechanisms underlying (patho)physiology over the past decades have generated a robust therapeutic armamentarium; exemplifi ed by synthetic hormones, multigenerational antibiotics, and recombinant vaccines, off ering eff ective interventions across a range of diseases. Th e exponential ascent of the new biology has transformed the comprehension of human health and disease and revolutionized technology; redefi ning clinical pharmacology in the context of discovery and translation, and the role of the clinical pharmacologist as the bridge between the laboratory and the patient, and thence to the population at large. Th e integration of cross-disciplinary concepts emerging from discovery and driving therapeutic solutions has imposed an evolutionary pressure on clinical pharmacology to focus on the identifi cation and application of tools for prognosis, prediction, cure, and, ultimately, prevention in pursuit of personalized medicine. Th e promise of clinical pharmacology and its impact on the future of therapeutics, in the emerging areas of combinatorial pharmacogenetics, targeted interference with disease, as well as stem cell–based tissue engineering and regeneration (to name a few), extends