The genetic secret behind Abraham Lincoln's towering success

Posted: Published on June 26th, 2014

This post was added by Dr Simmons

Researchers at Oxford hope that the new face-recognition software could similarly diagnose rare genetic conditions in children from family photographs.

Just as it did with Lincoln, the programme allows a computer to scour family snaps for facial features characteristics of conditions such as Downs syndrome, Angelman syndrome, or Progeria.

Between 30 and 40 per cent of rare genetic disorders are thought to involve changes in the shape of the face and skull.

However, they may not be obvious, and genetic confirmation is time consuming and costly.

The computer learned to identify each condition from a pattern of 36 facial features, such as the shapes of eyes, brows, lips and noses.

"A doctor should in future, anywhere in the world, be able to take a smartphone picture of a patient and run the computer analysis to quickly find out which genetic disorder the person might have, said lead researcher Dr Christoffer Nellaker, from the Medical Research Council's Functional Genomics Unit at Oxford University.

"This objective approach could help narrow the possible diagnoses, make comparisons easier and allow doctors to come to a conclusion with more certainty.

It wont provide rock solid diagnosis but it helps narrow the possibilities, as it did with Lincoln. All you need is a computer and a digital photo.

The computer algorithm has been created by mapping the features of thousands of people with genetic conditions and a control group.

Analysing ordinary family photos, it maps the corners of the eyes, nose, mouth and other features and compares the results with a database of remembered features.

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The genetic secret behind Abraham Lincoln's towering success

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