ABSTRACT

Toxicogenomics is a relatively new field oriented toward the response of an entire genome to toxicants or environmental stressors. Toxicogenomics encompasses three major objectives: to elucidate the connection between environmental stress and disease susceptibility; to establish proper biomarkers of disease and exposure to toxic substances; and to clarify the molecular mechanisms of toxicity. Target identification aims to distinguish new targets, normally proteins, whose modulation might suppress or prevent disease progression. The advent of technologies that endeavor to associate changes in gene and protein expression or genetic variation with human disease metamorphosed many aspects of medicine. A genome consists of deoxyribonucleic acid. Each genome encompasses all of the information required to assemble and support an organism. Epigenetics is the study of heritable modifications resulting in altered gene function leading to variable phenotype while maintaining an intact genotype. These changes influence the expression of a gene or the properties of its product.