Common medical conditions in which genes play a role

Brian T. Wilson

“Genes influence every aspect of a person’s health, from the ability to resist infection with a pathogen, to how medication is metabolised, to mental health and behaviour. Diseases have historically been defined by what a clinician sees, rather than the root cause of the pathology. In rare diseases, we know that genetic defects affecting different components of the same biological pathway can produce very similar clinical problems. However, understanding the factors contributing to common disorders is considerably more complex …”