Ana Teresa Freitas transformed her personal health challenges into an opportunity when an unclear diagnosis motivated her to embark on a new research trajectory. Freitas realized that the algorithms she was using in her electronic and computer engineering work were applicable to the analysis of regulatory gene networks. As professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Lisbon and CEO of HeartGenetics, she now uses algorithms to explore the human genome and identify genetic data that inform disease prevention.
In a recent Scientific Reports study, Freitas and her colleagues took a unique approach to understanding the genetics of immune response variability to SARS-CoV-2.1 They defined polygenic risk scores—a predictor of disease that uses an algorithm to assess genetic variability—for previously identified polymorphisms in genes involved in vitamin D synthesis, metabolism, and downstream pathways. Freitas and her team compared these polygenic risk scores to serum vitamin ...
