Story by Marc Glass; photo by Lori Durand

Ever wanted to know which diseases your genes may have in store for you? To know whether you’ll develop, say, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, or Alzheimer’s?

Since Time magazine deemed “The Retail DNA Test” its 2008 Invention of the Year, legions have eagerly coughed up about $400—and a little spit—for their personal genetic predictions.



That’s what concerns Jeannette St. Pierre ’97 of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Public Health Genomics (OPHG). Although the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 protects Americans from bias in employment and health insurance decisions, she’s concerned about a different misuse of genetic data—for instance, a consumer who considers an oophorectomy after a retail DNA test reveals a heightened risk for ovarian cancer.

“The combinations of genes, behaviors, and environmental factors that lead to disease are so complex it’s difficult to predict the risk that someone will develop a disease,” says St. Pierre, who leads the OPHG’s communications team. “The science just isn’t there yet, and many of the genetic tests that have been developed are being marketed prematurely.”

The field of genomics, St. Pierre explains, examines the interactions among genes, behaviors, and environmental factors and how they influence disease risk. Public health genomics, St. Pierre’s bailiwick, focuses on the “responsible translation of human genome-based information and applications into health-care practices.” And using population data on genetic variation and gene-environment interactions, the OPHG is developing evidence-based tools for improving public health and preventing disease.

With responsibility for the CDC’s overall communications strategy on genomics, St. Pierre develops educational messages and chooses the right media to reach the target population: legislators, health-care professionals, academics, or the general public. Her team produces Genomics and Health Weekly Update (www.cdc.gov/genomics/update/current.htm), whose 11,000 e-mail subscribers include public health practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and students. Her team is also developing Web-based fact sheets and podcasts to help educate health care providers and the public about genetic tests that address specific clinical scenarios for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, and depression. St. Pierre, who majored in community health education at UMF and earned master’s degrees in both public health and communication at Georgia State University (GSU), also serves as media liaison with a select group of national health-beat reporters.

Before joining the Office of Public Health Genomics, St. Pierre worked in the CDC’s Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response program, developing communication and education strategies to help health-care and lab workers in Africa properly respond to outbreaks of tuberculosis, HIV, cholera, malaria, and other priority diseases. These infectious diseases have high rates of mortality, but, she says, because their pathways to infection are better understood, teaching people how to curtail them is a comparatively simple health communication challenge.

“We know that cholera can spread by consuming contaminated water or food, or if people don’t wash their hands,” says St. Pierre, who is now working on a Ph.D. in communication and public health at GSU. “But genomics is far more complex. The science is emerging with new discoveries being released every day, and we’re looking at diseases with very complicated pathways and multiple risk factors.”

So, as for those retail DNA tests, St. Pierre says save your money.

“Right now, one of the best ways people can understand their disease risk is by looking at their family health history,” she says. “And one of the best ways to lower disease risk is by engaging in healthy behaviors.”

Learn more about St. Pierre’s work at www.cdc.gov/genomics