Host–pathogen interaction. Towards a personalized medicine

Abstract

The main and final objective of medicine is to provide the best treatment to individuals. Personalized Medicine or Personalized Health Care it is a fast developing area. It intends to go beyond this; it aims at the right treatment at the right moment for the right individual, by determining the individual predisposition for disease, predicting clinical outcomes, optimizing the availability of resources and using the therapeutic/prophylactic strategy appropriate for each individual. Although Personalized Medicine is currently more advanced in cancer, where many biomarkers are already described and validated it also has a huge potential and relevance for the infectious diseases. In this context, on the 20th and 21st of November, 2014, the Center of Malaria and other Tropical Diseases (CMDT/IHMT/UNL) organised a Cycle of Conferences, intended for teachers, researchers and students in life and biomedical sciences, where national and international specialists discussed the potential of medicine applied to infectious diseases.