MyGeneRank

A Mobile App for Coronary Artery Disease Genetic Risk

Many conditions affecting our health are caused by a combination of our environment, our behaviors, and our genes. While we can alter some factors in our lives to reduce our chances of developing different diseases (e.g., not smoking cigarettes), the contribution from our genetic risk encoded by our DNA remains with us throughout our lives.

Scientists are still trying to determine the entirety of genetic factors that influence disease, but for some conditions it has been shown that the factors identified thus far can begin to identify people at high to low genetic risk. Looking across your genome, we can calculate your cumulative genetic risk score – which can be used to rank your genetic risk compared to the other worldwide populations.

The goal of the MyGeneRank study is to determine how your genetic risk influences health decisions and other things that can be controlled in life. Our first genetic risk score is calculated for coronary heart disease (CAD).  CAD ultimately leads to heart attacks, heart failure and sometimes sudden cardiac death and is the main reason heart disease remains as the number one cause of death worldwide. Other researchers have shown that this genetic risk score can be used to identify people with low, intermediate, and high risk for coronary heart disease. It has also been shown that the use of statins (cholesterol lowering drugs) provides greater benefit and protection against heart attack for people with high genetic risk for coronary artery disease.

Individuals interested in enrolling in this study can do so via the free MyGeneRank mobile app (currently only available on Apple iOS). The app is “designed to provide any individual their genetic risk for disease without requiring familiarity in genetic data analysis or data handling”. The app “interfaces with the 23andMe application program interface (API) to directly transfer a user’s data to a secure server. A series of computations are then performed on [MyGeneRank] servers and the user’s estimated genetic risk is returned to them via graphical interface on the smartphone app”. [1]

The goal of MyGeneRank is to empower patients and physicians with a tool that uses previously reported findings to provide information that can be helpful in health decision making.

Eligibility:

To join this study, you must meet the following criteria:

• Be 18 years of age or older
• Have access to an iOS device
• Have pre-existing genetic data from 23andMe

Sign up for the closed beta of MyGeneRank.

 

[1] Moving Beyond Clinical Risk Scores with a Mobile App for the Genomic Risk of Coronary Artery Disease, bioRxiv, January 2017

 

 

Publications

• Moving Beyond Clinical Risk Scores with a Mobile App for the Genomic Risk of Coronary Artery Disease, bioRxiv, January 2017