From the DNA of minorities the push towards more precise diagnoses - Biotech. 275 million hitherto unknown genetic variants have emerged from the DNA analysis of often overlooked populations.
Results have been published in five articles in the journals Nature, Communications Biology and Nature Medicine. A first tranche of 2,500 genomes has just been completed and 275 million new, hitherto little-known variants have immediately emerged, associated with risk factors for some diseases, from tumors to type 2 diabetes. However, in order to reach an acceptable rate of completeness, it will be necessary to expand the range of genomes to at least 25 thousand complete DNAs.