The test from the biotechnology research company combines genetic and clinical factors to predict and prevent common diseases.
Oxford-based biotechnology research company Genomics has launched its Health Insights test across the country. It is the first UKCA-marked and MHRA-registered product that combines genetic and clinical factors to predict and prevent common diseases.
The company’s Health Insights UK test provides risk prediction tools for major preventable diseases. This provides a new generation of powerful, personalised, risk information about patients, and the company says that it “ushers in a new area of preventative medicine”.
“Imagine a world where we can prevent many of the cases of heart disease and diabetes and catch cancers earlier when outcomes are much more favourable. That world is possible today,” said Peter Donnelly, co-founder and chief executive of Genomics. “Doctors can now provide more personalised, more preventative, and better-informed advice to their patients, and get them into the appropriate prevention, screening, and treatment pathways earlier.
Genetic susceptibility
The test is based on polygenic risk scores (PRS), which use algorithms to combine information from millions of places in our DNA to give an overall summary of a person’s genetic susceptibility to a particular disease. These scores are largely uncorrelated with family history of disease and with clinical risk factors, which means that most people, and their doctors, will have no idea which diseases they are at higher risk of because of their genetics.
Polygenic risk scores can be calculated from a simple genetic test that only needs to be taken once in a person’s life, allowing them, and their doctors, to understand and act on their disease risks years before any symptoms develop.
The current UK test covers cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, prostate cancer, and breast cancer. It was developed following Genomics’ trial of an investigational cardiovascular risk tool in the NHS in 2021.
Current UK providers of the test include Bupa, Spire Healthcare (the largest hospital provider in the UK), and the GP clinic provider Well Life.
Founded in 2014, Genomics has established offices in Oxford, London, and Cambridge in the UK; as well as Research Triangle Park in North Carolina in the US, with labs in Framingham, US.
The company has raised just over £100 million in eight rounds of funding, according to CrunchBase. Its last round was £35 million Series C funding in January last year. The firm is backed by investors including F-Prime Capital, Foresite Capital and IP Group.
