Using Multi-Omics to Predict an Individual's Risk for Disease

When the first manifestations of a chronic disease become apparent, the pathologic process has been “brewing,” but invisible, for a long time. In theory, “multi-omic” technology — which enables us to measure alterations in thousands of different molecules (proteins and other metabolites) along with nucleic acids (genomics) simultaneously in a single sample — might identify such diseases in their presymptomatic phase.

Using blood from more than 2000 people, a multi-institutional team first evaluated genomic data to identify individuals at excess risk for a wide variety of diseases and conditions. Then, they asked whether combinations of altered molecules (identified through multi-omics), when combined with results of standard clinical laborat…