Guillaume Vogt

My pioneer work aimed at identifying the human genetic factors involved in the natural history of infectious diseases. My understanding is that the contribution of genetics to any human characteristics is major and as a rule underestimated when not just dogmatically ignored. Extreme phenotypes are caused by genetic variations in a single gene (or pathway), while more common phenotypes are caused by the additive effects of minor variations in a potentially large number of genes. Building on this evidence I hypothesize that the vast majority of human behavioral, pathology, preferences or physical traits are, at least in part, driven by the host genetic profile. Indeed, genetic testing company such as 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritageDNA or Helix and others collect biological samples, self-reported information, and consent documents for biobanking and research from millions individuals, through a direct-to-consumer (DTC) online genetic-testing service providing different services such as genetic ancestry report, genetic health report, genetic preferences or behaviors. But in France, these practices are not allowed. Genetic data, in France, can be produced only in health care or research. Thus I recently created a team interested in “Neglected Human Genetics”. We tend to constitute a large genetic cohort with connected participants called: “e-CohortE”. Our study of such company is very important to understand reliability of the predictive tests for medical risk factors, ethical issues, in the aim to anticipate what we could do in France under our laws with this setup with e-CohortE.