Combining genetic risk scores to improve prevention for heart disease and cancer
Rational Integration of Polygenic Risk Scores (RIPS)
This project builds tools to help doctors use combined genetic risk scores to guide prevention and screening for people at risk of heart disease, breast cancer, or colorectal cancer.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Vanderbilt University Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Nashville, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11303279 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You will hear about work that combines many small genetic risks (polygenic risk scores) with rare inherited mutations and routine clinical factors to estimate lifetime disease risk. The team will use decision models and large U.S. data to simulate how offering these combined scores to broad groups of adults could change health outcomes and costs over time. They will look for risk cutoffs that balance benefit and cost and pay special attention to how scores perform across racial and ethnic groups. Findings are meant to inform real-world plans for returning genetic risk results to patients and health systems.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are U.S. adults interested in genetic risk information for heart disease, breast cancer, or colorectal cancer, including those with relevant family histories.
Not a fit: Children, people unwilling to receive genetic results, or those whose conditions are unrelated to the genetic risks studied may not get direct benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help identify people who would benefit from earlier screening or preventive care based on their combined genetic risk.
How similar studies have performed: Previous research shows polygenic risk scores can improve risk prediction, but using them broadly in clinics and proving consistent benefit across diverse populations remains largely unproven.
Where this research is happening
Nashville, United States
- Vanderbilt University Medical Center — Nashville, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Peterson, Joseph F. — Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Peterson, Joseph F.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.