2/ Genetics

[ SPOTLIGHT / MONTREAL ]

McGill University’s Brent Richards is an endocrinologist who studies the genetic determinants of common age-related diseases.

“Rapid advances in artificial intelligence and genomics have allowed for increasingly accurate prediction of aging-related diseases like heart attacks, osteoporosis and cancer. What scientists can now do is capture information from a patient’s entire genome through a technique called a polygenic risk score. These scores summarize genetic risk of disease and, in some instances, provide better predictions than currently available risk factors.

“For example, a polygenic risk score for heart attacks can identify eight per cent of the population that has a three-fold increased risk of heart attacks. To put this in perspective, Type 2 diabetes affects roughly eight per cent of the population as well but only increases the risk of heart attacks by two-fold. More importantly, most people at high genetic risk have few other risk factors, and a polygenic risk score can identify people at risk who would have otherwise been missed. By more accurately identifying people at risk for common diseases, screening, diagnosis and treatment could be transformed in the next decade. Specifically, we are rapidly reaching the point when we can identify people who should be screened early for serious diseases like breast cancer and heart attacks.”

THE FUTURE

Harvard University researchers announced in November 2019 that a combination of three genes associated with longevity, delivered by injection, showed promise in mice models by reversing diabetes, obesity and heart and kidney failure in some and improving heart and kidney function in others.