Question: Is there a way to predict the likelihood of a person suffering from a genetic disease by analysing their DNA?

Asked by skyeamandablythe to Bev, Posty, Edward, Kate, Nathan on 22 Jun 2011.

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  1. Photo: Kate PattersonKate Patterson
    answered on 21 Jun 2011:

    Hey skyeamandablythe,

    Absolutely! well, at least for SOME genetic diseases. Some diseases have been pinned down to one or two genes, like huntington’s disease, hereditary breast cancer and downs syndrome for example.

    BUT there are MANY other diseases that seem to be genetic but have not yet had the exact gene identified. These diseases can not be tested for… yet.

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  2. Photo: Edward ShinEdward Shin
    answered on 22 Jun 2011:

    Hi skyemandablythe,

    The difficulty is that, even with diseases that do depend on genetics.
    1. The disease may be “caused” partly by genetics and partly by other things; and
    2. There may not BE an ‘exact gene’ to find: it seems that many diseases are “caused” by very complicated combinations of many genes. Biologists are increasingly using mathematics and computers to help them deal with this.

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Comments

  1. Photo: skyeamandablytheskyeamandablythe
    commented on 28 Jun 2011:

    Thank you for the information and reply, it has helped : )

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