As Many as One in 25 Carry Lifespan-Shortening Gene Variants

When people are told about risk genes in their DNA, that information is only useful if something can be done to mitigate that risk or therapies have been developed for the disorder; these are known as actionable genotypes. Scientists at deCODE genetics in Iceland have been collecting the DNA and health histories of Icelanders for many years, and this has given them many new insights into how genetic variations are connected to disease. New work by these investigators has calculated how many people in Iceland have actionable genotypes. The findings have…