Lifecode GX genomics testing
for cancer

Genetics involves the study of specific and limited numbers of genes, or parts of genes, that have a known function. In biomedical research, scientists try to understand how genes guide the body’s development, cause disease or affect response to drugs.

Genomics, in contrast, is the study of the entirety of an organism’s genes – called the genome. Using high-performance computing and math techniques known as bioinformatics, genomics researchers analyze enormous amounts of DNA-sequence data to find variations that affect health, disease or drug response. In humans that means searching through about 3 billion units of DNA across 23,000 genes.

Genomics is a much newer field than genetics and became possible only in the last couple of decades due to technical advances in DNA sequencing and computational biology.

What is genomic medicine

Genomic medicine is the study of our genes (DNA) and their interaction with our health. Genomics investigates how a person’s biological information can be used to improve their clinical care and health outcomes (eg through effective diagnosis and personalised treatment.

While genetics looks at specific genes or groups of 'letters' along the DNA strand, genomics refers to the study of someone's entire genetic makeup. It's about how they relate and react with each other and is associated with conditions that have a broader range of triggers such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and asthma.

How is genomics used in medicine?

Diagnosis — for example, where the cause of a range of symptoms cannot be pinpointed by any other means.
Prenatal tests that take place during pregnancy — either to screen (just in case something is wrong with the baby) or where there is already a family history. It helps the parents to make informed choices and plans for the future.
Where there is a family history of serious genetic disorders, it can tell prospective parents whether or not they are a carrier and if they can pass it on to their children. It can also tell someone if they are likely to develop the inherited condition later in life, even if they don't yet have any symptoms.
To assess risk — someone's genetic makeup can show their susceptibility to suffer certain illnesses, like heart disease, stroke, and cancer. Perhaps they're likely to have high cholesterol levels or to suffer problems with their veins. Possessing this knowledge means they can manage the risk through medicines, medical intervention, or making positive lifestyle changes.
Personalised care — each patient has medicines, treatment, and a health care plan tailored to them and their individual needs and risks. As an example, take the treatment of colorectal cancers. Some people with a particular gene mutation have better survival rates when treated with a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, such as aspirin, than those without this mutation.1