Google analyzes limits of genetic disease tests for non-Europeans
Google researchers looked at how well genetic risk models—used to forecast disease risk—work for Japanese populations when originally based on European genetic data. They ran experiments mixing UK Biobank (mostly European) and Biobank Japan samples to predict eight health traits. The study found that models built mostly on European data performed worse in Japanese individuals. Larger ancestry-specific data helped, but didn’t fully close the gap.
- Compared UK and Japanese biobanks for eight health traits
- Models from European data underperformed on Japanese samples
- Adding more Japanese data improved accuracy
- Even with more data, some prediction gaps remained
Sources covering this
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