,
7 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
DNA ancestry company MyHeritage launching health tests, including three based on polygenic risk scores: heart disease, type ii diabetes, breast cancer. Only works in Europeans. Continued debate as to whether this information useful. businesswire.com/news/home/2019…
A polygenic risk score (PRS) is a measure of your odds of developing a given condition, based on measures at many genes. See our overview here: technologyreview.com/s/610251/forec…
Offering these predictions direct to the public is quite new....and can be hotly debated. The predictions aren't that accurate. The tests do lie pretty often.
'not meant to diagnose or treat any disease'
'not meant to diagnose or treat any disease'
Huge debate here on Twitter. Follow @cecilejanssens and @MuinJKhoury for skeptical view. @skathire for advocacy. Other experts commenting: @GENES_PK , @wiringthebrain @venkmurthy @genetisaur @markmccarthyoxf
Concept in market for couple of years. Myriad genetics in 2017 introduced breast cancer PRS as part of its famous test. The polygenic score is like "another BRCA" -- i.e. new way to find a serious risk, as serious as the BRCA breast cancer gene. See here: technologyreview.com/s/609763/new-g…
Racial bias in data underlying tests: MyHeritage says its tests are only for people of European background. Because that is who they have data on. Trend towards European only tests covered here technologyreview.com/s/612322/white…
The other choice is to offer information to all backgrounds, even if substantially less accurate. That is what 23andMe did earlier this year when it launched at Type II diabetes prediction, including for african americans technologyreview.com/s/613095/23and… END
