An ancestry website may now have a new, more practical use that goes beyond just expanding your family tree.
A team of researchers is aiming to build a website that will take genetic data, and use it to determine your risk of developing five of the most serious and common health conditions, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
The researchers began their research by gathering data from the genome-wide association studies which was created in order to identify genetic variations that are linked with a variety of diseases.
They focused their investigation on variations linked to breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, irregular heart rate and coronary artery disease.
They then developed an algorithm that could use this information on the genetic variants of a disease in order to create a polygenic risk score. This number indicates a person’s risk of developing each disease, based on their genomic data.
The traditional approach usually looks at only one variant, while as this genetic test looks at much more, making it more comprehensive and sensitive, giving more accurate results to people what their risks are.
If people know that they are at risk, this can help them go on medication and take other preventative measures early on to prevent the onset of the potential disease.
