July 2010

Genetic ancestry proven powerful in predicting lung function

Genetic ancestry can tell more about a person's potential lung function than the self-identified racial profile commonly used to determine normal lung function reference standards, according to the results of research led by UCSF and Northwestern University. "When we force patients into an individual box, such as 'African-American' or 'Caucasian', we're missing a lot of genetic information," noted the study's senior author Esteban G.