This article was written by Allison Bland.

A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) hints at a future where a daily multivitamin could be replaced with a personalized vitamin that would work with the unique genetic makeup of an individual’s genome [1]. Studies have repeatedly cast doubt on the effects of vitamins for the prevention of cancer and other diseases, and doctors and scientists are mixed in their recommendations for taking these supplements. A doctor may prescribe vitamins to cure metabolic diseases, but the enzymes that do this metabolic work in our bodies vary from person to person because of genetic mutations that cause them to function slightly differently.