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Genetic Risk Prediction — Are We There Yet?

  • Peter Kraft, Ph.D.,
  • and David J. Hunter, M.B., B.S., Sc.D., M.P.H.

This article has no abstract; the first 100 words appear below.

A major goal of the Human Genome Project was to facilitate the identification of inherited genetic variants that increase or decrease the risk of complex diseases. The completion of the International HapMap Project and the development of new methods for genotyping individual DNA samples at 500,000 or more loci have led to a wave of discoveries through genomewide association studies. These analyses have identified common genetic variants that are associated with the risk of more than 40 diseases and human phenotypes. Several companies have begun offering direct-to-consumer testing that uses the same single-nucleotide polymorphism chips that are used in genomewide . . .

Funding and Disclosures

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

This article (10.1056/NEJMp0810107) was published at NEJM.org on April 15, 2009.

Author Affiliations

Dr. Kraft is an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston. Dr. Hunter is a professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and serves as a statistical consultant to the Journal.

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