Genomics and Precision Health Blog – Archive Posts

Is it Time to Integrate Polygenic Risk Scores into Clinical Practice? Let’s Do the Science First and Follow the Evidence Wherever it Takes Us!

a polygenetic risk score bell curve and DNA, lab techinicians working in a lab and a doctor talking to his patient

In case you have not been paying much attention to genomic medicine research or social media coverage, you might have missed a clear uptick in the past couple of years  on the value of polygenic risk scores in clinical practice and population screening. (see examples here, here, here, and here) Polygenic risk scores (PRS) summarize Read More >

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; and George A. Mensah, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute, Bethesda, Maryland1 Comment
Categories genomics
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Can Predictive Analytics Drive Implementation Research to Improve Population Health?

a crowd of people incased in an upward arrow with a magifying glass on them with DNA

To date, research investments have yielded many highly effective health interventions for disease prevention and treatment. Examples include smoking cessation, lipid and blood pressure control as well as diet and physical activity interventions. Yet, many interventions are not being optimally delivered to have public health impact. Implementation research can provide a means to determine optimal Read More >

Posted on by Michael Engelgau, George A. Mensah, Center for Translation Research and Implementation Science, National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute, National Institutes for Health, Bethesda, Maryland and Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Categories genomics
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Lack of Knowledge of Natural History of New Biomarkers: The Achilles’ Heel of Precision Health!

a doctor pointing to a tablet with an achilles' heel surrounded by images of a double helix, a microscope, a temperature scale, and pill, a stethoscope, a heart with a beat, a virus, a test tube, a medicine bag and several test tubes

In Greek mythology, when Achilles was a baby, it was foretold that he would die young. To prevent his death, his mother dipped his body in the River Styx, which was supposed to offer powers of invulnerability. However, as she held the baby by the heel, the heel did not come into contact with the Read More >

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Categories genomics
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Time to Keep a Smart Watch on Precision Health

an arm with a smart watch and a heartbeat drawn on the arm

A Science-Based Vision for the Wearable Revolution It is 2022, Juan, 45 years old, is thrilled to purchase a new smartwatch he can afford because it is offered at a discount through a special program with his employer. Juan plans to track his physical activity, heart rate, diet, and sleep. Under the program, Juan also Read More >

Posted on by Scott Bowen and Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; George A. Mensah, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland2 Comments
Categories genomics
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Research on the Behavioral Impact of Polygenic Risk Scores: The Train Has Already Left the Station!

a Polygenic Risk Scores with a train leaving the station

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the new generation of polygenic risk scores (information about a person’s disease risk based on many dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even millions of common DNA variants in their genome), and whether these new-and-improved genetic risk scores are going to turn out to be useful for disease Read More >

Posted on by Saskia Sanderson, Guest Blogger, University College London Institute of Health Informatics, London, United Kingdom and Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Categories genomics
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Introducing the Rare Diseases Genomics and Precision Health Knowledge Base

a black swan in a sea of white swans and DNA

For the past three years, The CDC Public Health Genomics Knowledge Base (PHGKB) has been tracking the public health impact of advances in genomics and precision technologies. Every day, we provide new information and publications for researchers, health care providers, policy makers, and the general public. We also offer access to the latest epidemiologic and Read More >

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury and Wei Yu, Office of Public Health Genomics. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention2 Comments
Categories genomics
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How Genetic Counselors are Dealing with Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing

a genetic counselor talking to a client with DNA in the background

After receiving ancestry information from a direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing company, Ellen Matloff, a certified genetic counselor and frequent writer about the limitations of DTC tests, downloaded her raw data file from their website for interpretation by a third party service. She was shocked to see that her raw data included a variant for Lynch Read More >

Posted on by Suzy Cahn, Guest Blogger, Genetic Counseling Training Program Class of 2019, Emory University School of Medicine and Ridgely Fisk Green, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Categories genetic counseling, genomics, personal genomics

Introducing “Precision” to the CDC Genomics and Health Impact Update and the Public Health Genomics Knowledge Base

a world map with a GPS, cell phone and DNA and people

For many years, the CDC Office of Public Health Genomics has published the Genomics and Health Impact Weekly Update with the latest information and publications about the real-world impact of genomics on medicine and public health. More recently, we added a second feature to our weekly update, the Advanced Molecular Detection (AMD) Clips, highlighting the Read More >

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Categories genomics
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Public Health Genomics: What’s Next?

a figure looking at a sign labeled Public Health Genomics with an arrow going to another sign labeled Precision Public Health and a double helix in the background

In the 1990’s, the excitement surrounding the Human Genome Project led the public health community to plan for the future role of genomics in health care and disease prevention. The field of public health genomics was launched to identify opportunities for the new science to impact health, inform public health programs and health care providers Read More >

Posted on by Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia
Categories genomics

Let’s not get too excited about genome sequencing of healthy newborns. Here’s why!

Newborn screening (NBS) is the largest public health genetics program around the world.  Each year in the United States, thousands of babies are saved from lifelong disability and death by timely diagnosis and treatment. While most newborns are screened with biochemical tests that use drops of blood from a heel prick, new advances in genome Read More >

Posted on by Scott D. Grosse, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, Jeffrey R. Botkin, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Muin J. Khoury, Office of Public Health Genomics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia1 Comment
Categories genomics, newborn screening