Predisposition Modification

• US 20110016105A1
• Filed: 09/09/2010
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 23andme Incorporated (23andMe Holding Co.)
• Original Assignee: Expanse Networks, Inc.
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles Anthony, Kenedy, Andrew Alexander
• Granted Patent: US 8,055,643 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/08 Learning methods
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/00 ICT specially adapted for functional genomics or proteomics, e.g. genotype-phenotype associations
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/20 Allele or variant detection, e.g. single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] detection
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/40 Population genetics; Linkage disequilibrium
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 : for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 : for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 : relating to practices or guidelines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles

Abstract

A method and system for predisposition modification are presented in which a set of attributes for selective modification of the attribute profile of an individual are determined to enable the individual to modify their predisposition for acquiring an attribute of interest. The attribute of interest can be input in the form of a query attribute along with a minimum strength of association value which serves as a threshold to ensure that the results will provide at least a minimum degree of statistical certainty that the individual will acquire the attribute of interest upon modifying their attribute profile.

Claims

1. A computer based method for determining a set of modifiable non-pangenetic attributes for altering the predisposition of an individual to a condition comprising:

a) receiving a condition query describing the condition which identifies, within a computer memory, a set of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles associated with query-attribute-positive individuals having the condition and a set of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles associated with query-attribute-negative individuals not having the condition, wherein the query-attribute-positive attribute profiles and query-attribute-negative attribute profiles contain pangenetic and non-pangenetic attributes;

b) accessing the pangenetic and non-pangenetic attributes of the individual;

c) selecting a subset of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles from the set of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles wherein the subset of query-attribute-positive profiles has a statistically significant overlap with the pangenetic and non-pangenetic attributes of the individual;

d) selecting a subset of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles from the set of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles, wherein the subset of query-attribute negative profiles has statically significant overlap with the pangenetic attributes of the individual;

e) determining a set of candidate attributes comprising non-pangenetic attributes from the query-attribute-positive attribute profiles that do not occur in statistically significant portion of the subset of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles, but which occur in a statistically significant portion of the subset of query-attribute-positive profiles;

f) determining a set of modifiable non-pangenetic attributes derived from the set of candidate attributes, wherein removal of at least one those attributes from the query-attribute-positive profiles results in an statistically significant altered probability of the individual having the condition; and

g) transmitting the set of modifiable non-pangenetic attributes as a recommendation for predisposition modification in the individual.

2. The computer based method of claim 1, wherein the non-pangenetic attributes include at least one behavior.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition is a disease.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the altered probability is a decreased susceptibility to the condition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the altered probability is an increased susceptibility to the condition.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the altered probability is a decreased susceptibility to the disease.

7. The computer based method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the set of modifiable non-pangenetic attributes in f) includes ranking the modifiable non-pangenetic attributes according to their impact on the probability of the individual having the condition.

8. The computer based method of claim 1, wherein the identity of the subject is masked or anonymized.

9. A computer based method for determining one or more behavioral characteristics of a subject that when modified, based on their genetic makeup, decrease their susceptibility to a disease comprising:

a) receiving a disease query which identifies, in a computer memory, a set of profiles of individuals having the disease, and a set of profiles of individuals not having the disease, wherein the profiles contain genetic and behavioral attributes;

b) accessing a set of genetic and behavioral attributes for the subject;

c) selecting a first set of individuals profiles for individuals having the disease, wherein the first set of selected individuals profiles have similar genetic makeups and behavioral attributes to that of the subject;

d) selecting a second set of individuals profiles for individuals not having the disease, wherein the set of selected individuals profiles have similar genetic makeups to that of the subject;

e) determining a set of behavioral attributes which are present in the first individuals profiles for individuals having the disease, but not in the second set of selected individuals profiles of individuals not having the disease; and

f) determining, from the a set of behavioral attributes, a set of modifiable attributes which when modified, result in a statistically significant decrease in the subject getting the disease, given their genetic makeup.

10. The computer based method of claim 9, wherein the determining off) includes ranking the modifiable attributes within the set of modifiable attributes according to the statistical impact they have in decreasing the probability of the subject getting the disease.

11. The computer based method of claim 9, further comprising:

g) transmitting the set of modifiable attributes as recommended behavioral changes to reduce the subject'"'"'s probability of getting the disease, given their genetic makeup.

12. The computer based method of claim 10, further comprising:

g) transmitting the set of modifiable attributes as recommended behavioral changes to reduce the subject'"'"'s probability of getting the disease, given their genetic makeup.

13. A computer based system for modification of the predisposition of an individual to a condition, comprising:

a) a data receiving subsystem for receiving a query condition representing the condition and an individual identifier representing the individual;

b) a first data accessing subsystem for accessing, within a computer memory, a set of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles associated with query-attribute-positive individuals, a set of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles associated with query-attribute-negative individuals, and an attribute profile associated with the individual, wherein the attribute profiles contain pangenetic and non-pangenetic attributes;

c) a first data processing subsystem comprising;

i) a data selection subsystem for selecting a first subset of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles from the set of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles wherein the pangenetic and non-pangenetic attribute profiles of the query-attribute-positive individuals have a statistically significant overlap with the attribute profile of the individual and, selecting a second subset of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles from the set of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles wherein the pangenetic portion of the profiles of the query-attribute-negative individuals have a statistically significant overlap with the pangenetic portion of the attribute profile of the individual;

ii) a first data comparison subsystem for determining a set of candidate attributes comprising non-pangenetic attributes from the first subset of query-attribute-positive attribute profiles that do not occur in a statistically significant percentage of the second subset of query-attribute-negative attribute profiles;

d) a first data storage subsystem for storing, within a computer memory, at least a portion of the set of candidate attributes comprising non-pangenetic attributes as modifiable attributes which when modified by the individual will result in an altered probability of having the condition.

14. The computer based system of claim 13, wherein the first data comparison subsystem is also capable of determining the relative impact of modification of individual candidate attributes on the probability of the individual having the condition.

15. The computer based system of claim 13, wherein the first data comparison subsystem is also capable of ranking the candidate attributes in terms of their importance of modifying the probability of the individual having the condition.

16. The computer based system of claim 13, further comprising:

e) a transmission system for transmitting the modifiable attributes as a set of non-pangenetic attributes which when modified by the individual, will result in an altered probability of having the condition.

17. The computer based system of claim 14, further comprising:

e) a transmission system for transmitting the modifiable attributes as a set of non-pangenetic attributes which when modified by the individual, will result in an altered probability of having the condition.

18. The computer based system of claim 15, further comprising:

e) a transmission system for transmitting the modifiable attributes as a set of non-pangenetic attributes which when modified by the individual, will result in an altered probability of having the condition.