Hello Polymaths:
There are several companies pushing into a space which can loosely be called "personalized medicine". This entails processing the DNA genetic sequence and using statistics to attempt to give a likelihood for the pre-disposition for certain diseases.
One such company is called Navigenics and I was surprised to see that they have an academic paper which shows the mathematics behind their process (which I assume is patented).
Theoretically processes of this type can (or may in the future) allow us to make therapeutic medicine which is tailored to an individual based on the DNA.
I have not read this yet since statistics is a "slog" for me (compared to abstract algebra :-)! Be aware that in addition to mathematics, this material also has lots of biotech terms like SNPs, odds-ratios, genotypes. As always, Wikipedia is the best choice to get a paragraph or two about unfamiliar technical terms.
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