Scientists have developed a statistical method using evolutionary information to significantly enhance the likelihood of identifying disease-associated alleles in the genome that show better consistency across populations.

The group’s research appeared in the advanced online issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. The new method is now available to use via the web, so that researchers worldwide can apply it as an aid to discovering disease-associated mutations that are more consistently reproducible and therefore useable as diagnostic markers. Kumar refers to this new approach, combining standard comparative genomic studies with phylogenetic data as phylomedicine, a rapidly developing field that promises to streamline genomic information and improve its diagnostic power.

Read more: Evolutionary information improves discovery of mutations associated with diseases