Overview

Dash Genomics has partnered with UCSF and UCSD scientists to offer a new model to understand individual risk of Alzheimer’s disease beyond only the APOE gene, as a function of age and genetic information. Dash Genomics has now made this state-of-the-art algorithm available to anyone with 23andMe or Ancestry.com DNA data.

The personalized Alzheimer’s risk analysis is available from Dash Genomics for $149 but is currently available to Open Humans members at a special price of $99.

Overview of Risk Analysis Offering

1. Please see www.dashgenomics.com for more information and an interactive sample report.

2. Report example: https://www.dashgenomics.com/#demoreport

3. Product page for full description: https://www.dashgenomics.com/#product

4. We offer the following aspects of analysis within the report

5. Cumulative Risk – the risk of onset of Alzheimer’s by a certain age

6. Instantaneous Risk – the risk of onset of Alzheimer’s within a certain year of age

7. Risk over the next 5 years (for those over 55)

8. AZ50 age – the age your cumulative risk rises above 50%

9. Polygenic Hazard Score (PHS) percentile – Compare your estimated risk profile to the general population

10. APOE status – Status based on the genotype combination of the two APOE copies

How does it work?

Participants can purchase the risk analysis through the Dash Genomics website. Participants have the option to upload their 23andMe or AncestryDNA data files. Dash Genomics validates the file for compatibility before running the analysis. If the files meet the requirements, participants can proceed to payment, after which the personalized report is generated in seconds. Once the report is created, participants are able to log in at www.dashgenomics.com at any time using their laptop or mobile device to access their interactive, digital report and can also print or download a PDF version.

Data collection details:

1. Raw uploaded files are stored encrypted
2. All account information and report results are stored in an encrypted database
3. User passwords are never stored in clear text. A random hash is generated for each password before storage and must be changed if forgotten or lost
4. Raw files and generated result data is stored separately from the account information without the names of users
5. Data can be deleted upon request. We remove the user account, uploaded file(s) associated with the account, and the generated report results

The Science

The proprietary algorithm used by Dash Genomics was developed by HealthLytix, a precision health company in San Diego, and is based on cutting-edge research from UC San Diego and UC San Francisco. The research looks at age-specific risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease based on genetic markers that have never been used before for estimating risk. The model looks at the similarities between genetic profile and the average risk in the group analyzed in the research.

Read more about:

1. Our research team featured in Wired

2. Our service is based on peer-reviewed research in leading scientific journals - see Desikan et al. 2017 and Tan et al. 2019. We work directly with these original authors of the paper to provide the service.

3. A powerful piece by Dr. Rahul Desikan on personalized polygenic scores, and how they may help individuals understand their risk for dozens of conditions, including Alzheimer’s: https://www.statnews.com/2019/04/30/als-polygenic-analysis/

Additional Information

The user agrees they are at least 18 years old, and agrees to our privacy policy and terms of service, available here:

Terms of Service: https://www.dashgenomics.com/#tos

Privacy Policy: https://www.dashgenomics.com/#privacy

There is no financial relationship between Dash Genomics and Open Humans. We are providing a discount from our normal price for the community since we know the group is historically interested in such information, and hopefully a discount could make it more accessible to the community. We have historically provided community partners a discount of this size to help members.