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Applications of Polygenic Risk Scores to Population Health: Where Are We?

a polygenic risk curve over a population

An international multidisciplinary group of experts in genetics, law, ethics, behavioral sciences, and other fields reviews the state of science on polygenic scores and highlights risks and gaps before widespread use in practice. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) combine the small effects of many genes across the human genome to estimate the risk of a disease Read More >

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury, W. David Dotson, Office of Genomics and Precision Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Categories genomics
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Contributions of Genomics to the Fight Against Malaria

This Giemsa-stained, thin film blood smear photomicrograph reveals the presence of a young, growing, Plasmodium vivax trophozoite (Lt), and a platelet stack (Cntr), which resembles a P. falciparum gametocyte.

Malaria was endemic in the United States (US) when the Communicable Disease Center was purposefully opened in Atlanta, GA, rather than Washington DC, in 1946. The Communicable Disease Center, now the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was started closest to where malaria elimination efforts were needed: the Southern US, including Georgia, suffered Read More >

Posted on by Colleen Scott, Division of Global HIV & TB, and Eldin Talundzic, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Categories genomics
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New CDC Partnerships to Advance the Development and Validation of Next Generation Sequencing Tests: A Publicly Available List of Expert Curated Variants

a person using scissors to cut DNA

Over the last decade, genetic testing has evolved from examining a few well-defined variants in one or a few genes to the capability to examine much of the human genome using next generation sequencing (NGS). These analyses are particularly useful for disorders with locus and allelic heterogeneity, and are now the norm in several clinical Read More >

Posted on by Lisa V. Kalman, Ira M. Lubin, Division of Laboratory Systems, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Categories genomics
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Happy Thanksgiving 2021: Family Health History in the COVID-19 Era

Knowing and acting on your family health history can protect your health. Use My Family Health Portrait to take the first steps: Collect your family helath history - Share it with your doctor and family; an image of an extended family with a button labeled VISIT My Family Health Portrait

For a second year in a row, this Thanksgiving might not look the same as the ones before it, but some things haven’t changed. Even if you can’t see your loved ones in person, Thanksgiving is still a great time to talk to your family members about your family health history. Having one or more family members Read More >

Posted on by Ridgely Fisk Green and Muin J. Khoury, Office of Genomics and Precision Public Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Categories family history, genomics