UMCG researchers find hundreds of ‘key genes’

An international group of more than 100 researchers, led by Prof. Dr. Lude Franke of the UMCG, has found hundreds of ‘key genes’ in human DNA. This gives science new insights into the origin of diseases and the results also offer new starting points for drug development.

The genetic code of more than 31,000 people was examined for certain disease factors. ‘We have correlated genetic variants, which we know increase the risk of disease, with genetic ‘expression patterns’, says UMCG researcher Annique Claringbould. The researchers used this information to calculate the participants’ risk of more than 1,200 diseases. Claringbould: “That’s sort of a summary of a person’s genetic risk, but it doesn’t say much about how the disease comes about. By linking the genetic score to gene expression patterns, we arrived at key genes that play an important role in the development of a disease.”

The results of this research were published on September 2, 2021 in the journal Nature Genetics. The data from the study is online for everyone to use. Hundreds of publications have already been published in which the results of the study have been used.

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