24. Attaches great significance, in medical and economic terms, to disease genetics; research in the field of disease genetics is aimed at gaining an understanding of the links between the emergence and development of diseases from a genetic angle and at obtaining from such understanding pointers as to how to treat or prevent such diseases or develop medicines; disease genetics takes account of the many-sided processes of interaction between genes, gene products and environmental factors and opens up very promising prospects for effectively influencing pathological processes without intervention to modify the genome;

Although socio-economic and environmental factors are important determinants of overall health, in some circumstances genetic endowment appears to predispose certain individuals to particular diseases or health problems.

endorsed the envirogenomic approach to childhood asthma and called for a multidisciplinary approach in research projects simultaneously examining genetic and environmental factors; recognised the appropriateness of Europe as a basis for such work taking into account the availability of diverse genetic groups; emphasised that investigation of childhood asthma in the context of the envirogenomic approach should focus primarily on approaches to better prevention, diagnosis and management of asthma in children; called for full regard t ...[+++]o be taken of ethical guidelines which should be applied in carrying out such research; and called for greater research to be carried out into the problem of childhood asthma, for example using the envirogenomic approach, and endorsed the selection of childhood asthma as the prototype example.

It could bring together a multidisciplinary research agenda to address the following: basic genetic research on asthma at a hospital in a city centre; clinical trials and evaluations of asthma therapies in various provinces; research by social scientists and public health officials on factors leading to asthma in children in rural areas; or evaluate local pilot projects to improve how our health system responds to childhood asthma.