NOVEMBER 23, 2012 | The Journal 15

JOuRNal cOMMuNity

November couples Thanksgiving with National Homelessness Awareness Month, combining a time of thanks with a time of giving to those who have less.

The giving season has definitely arrived: Thanksgiving through Christmas is prime time for charities and nonprofits to accrue most of their funds. This year, however,

there is a nagging fear that the weak econ-omy and the damage wreaked by Hurri-cane Sandy will dampen charitable gifts for the 2012 holiday season.

Those in the philanthropy business have mixed opinions on the likelihood of those

Upstate charities forsee flat or falling donationsBy SHELBY LIVINGSTON |

contributorDONATIONS continued

on pAge 16

Holiday giving predictions mixedVolunteers and employees keep an eye on the turkeys frying at the sixth annual Great Thanksgiving Turkey Fry at Miracle Hill Rescue in Spartanburg.

ge

rry pa

te / c

on

trib

utin

g

Personalized medicinepromises bettertreatment,lower costBy aprIL a. mOrrIS | staff

Within the next decade, patients will be able to present a personalized genome to their physicians, making it possible to predict disease and optimize health. This was the mes-sage that Dr. Leroy Hood, founder of the Institute for Systems Biology, brought to the recent What Next? conference of the South Carolina Biotechnology Industry Organiza-tion (SCBIO).

Hood spoke on personalized medicine, or the use of new meth-ods of molecular analysis to better manage a patient’s disease or predis-position to disease. 

Understanding how disease af-fects all of the body’s systems, even down to the genetic level, combined with knowledge of environmental factors can ultimately reduce health-care costs and increase wellness, Hood said.

Through mapping and tracking a disease’s genetic effects, physicians will be able to diagnose a disease early on because the genetic signs have already been documented, he said. His institute has tracked brain disease in mice and recorded its ef-fects on a genetic level. With this kind of data, a disease can be diag-nosed even before symptoms ap-pear, he said.

Hood calls his systematic approach to healthcare “P4 medicine,” which stands for “predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory.”

Knowing the genetic code of pa-tients not only allows physicians to diagnose a disease earlier, but to match treatment medication more accurately, he said.

For example, some patients are drug-tolerant, and if that is already known, then certain drugs can be avoided, he said. “When you understand in detail the specific mechanisms of disease,

SCBIO continued on pAge 17

NOVEMBER 23, 2012 | The Journal 25

JOuRNal cultuRE

sightsand

sounds

sightsand

sounds

HolidayArts organizations give

Upstate many chances

to catch the holiday spirit.

S t o r y o n p a g e 2 6