Addressing Ancestry Disparities in Genomic Medicine: A Geographic-aware Algorithm

With declining sequencing costs a promising and affordable tool is emerging in cancer diagnostics: genomics. By using association studies, genomic variants that predispose patients to specific cancers can be identified, while by using tumor genomics cancer types can be characterized for targeted treatment. However, a severe disparity is rapidly emerging in this new area of precision cancer diagnosis and treatment planning, one which separates a few genetically well-characterized populations (predominantly European) from all other global populations. Here we discuss the problem of population-specific genetic associations, which is driving this disparity, and present a novel solution--coordinate-based local ancestry--for helping to address it. We demonstrate our boosting-based method on whole genome data from divergent groups across Africa and in the process observe signals that may stem from the transcontinental Bantu-expansion.