This Lifesaving Genetics Tool Works Best if You’re White

The National Institutes of Health recently announced a remarkable achievement: the world’s largest database of human genomes, a repository of information that the agency says will help usher in a new era in personalized medicine.

Scientists are already developing clinical tools and techniques based on genomic information gathered from the agency’s All of Us program. One of the most promising? Polygenic risk scores. These can help predict a person’s likelihood of developing complex diseases, like cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, from as early as infancy.

But there’s a glaring problem: The tools were trained overwhelmingly on the DNA of people of European descent, so they often fail to accurately assess risks for anyone else. For some conditions, the forecasts for people of color are almost no better than flipping a coin.

Researchers are racing to correct the biases through advancements in modeling and widespread recruitment of minority groups. They fear that failing to close the gaps could worsen health care disparities — and prevent the technology from realizing its promise of helping to decrease chronic disease.