One paper, many implications

A Yale geneticist is among the authors of an article deemed by The Lancet last winter to be the most important biomedical research paper of the previous year.

The authors of the article, “Genetic Structure of Human Populations,” published in Science in December 2002, used genotypes of more than 1,000 people from 52 populations around the world to study human population structure. “The paper quantifies the degree to which biomedical research findings based on one group of individuals may be applicable to individuals from other populations,” said co-author Kenneth K. Kidd, Ph.D., Yale professor of genetics, psychiatry and biology. Kidd and colleagues in the United States, France and Russia identified six main genetic clusters and additional subclusters. They concluded that genetic risks of disease can be assessed with standard study designs if self-reported ethnic background is also considered.