The Viking Genes team has been studying the genetic makeup of Scottish islanders, discovering new insights into the genetic history of the Scottish islands and where their ancestors came from.
In doing so, the team’s research has identified that many of the island populations have their own unique gene pools, revealing that certain disease-causing variants are found more commonly in some island communities than elsewhere in the UK.
Armed with this knowledge, the team works carefully to return results to those individuals who have been identified with a higher risk of developing life-threatening conditions, allowing for earlier intervention and preventative surgeries.
Because of this, several islanders have been treated to remove cancers they didn’t know they had, whilst others have opted for preventative surgery to reduce their risk of developing cancer later in life.
Understanding the risks that certain genes raise means that more effective testing can be done to help those individuals with a higher risk. And understanding this risk means that, in the future, people with an increased risk of disease may be able to request a referral to a local genetics centre and be offered increased screening.
The Viking Genes team hope that by returning actionable findings to the study volunteers, and identifying heightened genetic risks in the Scottish islands, they will act as exemplars for later deployment on a national scale, to help realise the full impact of genomics on medicine.
Future research hopes to investigate high cholesterol, cardiomyopathy, haemochromatosis, Wilson disease, Pompe disease, Batten disease, and island-specific multiple sclerosis variants.
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