VU Professor V. Kučinskas' Article - Among the Most Cited in “PLOS One” Scientific Journal

The Faculty of Medicine, together with “PLOS One”, congratulates Vaidutis Kučinskas, a professor at Vilnius University (VU), on the news that his paper on the topic of pharmacogenomics is among the 10 percent most cited in this journal. “PLOS One” is a well-known, peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science since 2006. The journal covers primary research from any discipline within science and medicine.

Prof. Dr. Habil. V. Kučinskas is an active full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the chairperson of the Division of Biological, Medical, and Geosciences. He established the Human Genome Research Centre at the institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine in VU; he is also the chief scientist and head of this center conducting fundamental and clinical research in genome diversity and inherited diseases in Lithuania.

Prof. V. Kučinskas is a leading and one of the most cited researchers in the Baltic States. He has published research papers in the most prestigious international research journals such as “Nature”, “Science”, “Nature Genetics”, “PLOS One”, “American Journal of Human Genetics”, “European Journal of Human Genetics”, “Annals of Human Genetics” and others.

He has been a coordinator or the main researcher in 17 national and 18 international programmes. Over the past 5 years, he led two important scientific projects: LITGEN (2011–2015) and UNIGENE (2012–2016). The professor has received prestigious awards and acknowledgements for his invaluable contribution to science and research.

“PLOS One” is the journal of choice for authors who want their research to be available to all, immediately and without restriction. Articles are highly discoverable and accessible to researchers both in and outside of their discipline. The famous paper of the Professor V. Kučinskas published in “PLOS One” magazine, deals with the issues of famacogenomics. This science studies the role of the genome in drug response. In several European populations, particularly in countries with lower income, information related to the prevalence of pharmacogenomics biomarkers is incomplete or lacking.

In this paper, the micro attribution approach to assess the pharmacogenomic biomarkers allelic spectrum in 18 European populations, mostly from developing European countries, by analysing 1,931 pharmacogenomics biomarkers in 231 genes was implemented. The results showed significant inter-population pharmacogenomic biomarker allele frequency differences, particularly in seven clinically actionable pharmacogenomics biomarkers in seven European populations, affecting drug efficacy and/or toxicity of 51 medication treatment modalities.

These findings can be exploited not only to develop guidelines for medical prioritization, but most importantly – to facilitate integration of pharmacogenomics and to support pre-emptive pharmacogenomics testing. This may subsequently contribute towards significant cost-savings in the overall healthcare expenditure in the participating countries, where pharmacogenomics implementation proves to be cost-effective.