genetic testing

1. A process in which a person's or an embryo's DNA is isolated and tested for the presence of specific genes or defects that could indicate the future onset of some disease.

In the United States, genetic testing is most often performed on alert prospective parents for possible problems during a pregnancy or the likelihood of congenital disease in a future child. The privacy of the results is one of the many difficult issues with this practice, particularly as it relates to insurance underwriting.

Example Sentences

The team reports that this improved method strengthens the accuracy of heart disease risk prediction while also offering a broad framework for genetic testing.

Read more on Science Daily

Current genetic testing typically falls into one of three separate categories:

Read more on Science Daily

Despite the benefits, genetic testing remains underused.

Read more on Science Daily

"The biggest challenge is a workforce that isn't trained in how to use genetic testing. As polygenic risk scores become more common, our approach will become even more valuable."

Read more on Science Daily

"It's a very cool approach in which we are combining rare gene variants with common gene variants and then adding in non-coding genome information. To our knowledge, no one has used this comprehensive approach before, so it's really a roadmap of how to do that," said co-corresponding author Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of the Center for Genetic Testing and a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology and of biochemistry and molecular genetics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Read more on Science Daily