Many diseases cannot be explained by the influence of adverse factors, malnutrition, and environmental pollution only. Each person has a unique set of genes (genotype) that determines his personality and predisposition to a particular disease.

Therefore, one of the priority tasks of modern medicine is the determination of genetic parameters in order to predict the development of diseases.

The Medical Center of the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology of the North-West Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences offers a unique method of molecular genetic analysis of 20 genes, followed by the preparation of a patient's genetic passport, which makes it possible to assess the risk of developing diseases such as:

- Coronary artery disease
- Various tumors
- Hypertonic disease
- Alzheimer's disease
- Diabetes, etc.

Thanks to the study of the human genome, the identification of its genes, including genes whose mutations lead to hereditary diseases or predispose to the most frequent, polygenic (multifactorial) diseases, for the first time there was a real opportunity not only to conduct accurate molecular diagnostics, but also to determine (predict) predisposition of a person to a particular disease.

As a rule, the patient goes to a doctor at the stage when the course of the disease is accompanied by vivid clinical manifestations and complications. At the same time, the main cause of the pathological process often remains unclear and gradually leads to irreversible changes in organs and tissues. In this case, the most intensive treatment can only temporarily improve the patient's condition and make him dependent for life on symptomatic drugs.

Studies of the human genome have made early, pre-symptomatic diagnosis of not only genetic, but also many multifactorial diseases real.

In practice, this goal can be achieved by molecular testing of genes called "predisposition" genes. The latter can be defined as genes whose hereditary variants (polymorphisms) are compatible with life, but in combination with adverse external factors (drugs, food, bad habits, pollution environment, infections) can be the cause of various, including such frequent pathological conditions and diseases as atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease (CHD), osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, bronchial asthma, tumors, etc.

For all of these diseases, such genes are already known. Their combinations for each specific pathology are called "gene networks".

The compilation of a gene network for each multifactorial disease, the identification of central genes and modifier genes in it, the analysis of the association of their polymorphisms with a specific disease, the development on this basis of a set of preventive measures for a particular patient form the strategic basis of a new, rapidly developing direction - predictive (predictive) medicine .

Identification of genetic disorders is a timely warning to the patient and the doctor about the possible risk of pathology. A doctor who has received a conclusion from a patient's molecular genetic analysis is better prepared to protect his health.