Patent ID: 6912492

Claim:
A method of estimating the susceptibility of an individual to have offspring that develop a developmental disorder comprising: (a) collecting a biological sample from one or more participants; wherein a participant is either the individual or a blood relative of the individual; and wherein the biological sample contains nucleic acids and/or proteins of the participant; (b) analyzing the nucleic acids and/or proteins from the biological sample; wherein said analyzing results in a partial or full genotype for the alleles of two or more genes involved in folate, pyridoxine, and/or cobalamin metabolism; and wherein said partial or full genotype forms a dataset of genetic explanatory variables for the participants; (c) adding the datasets of genetic explanatory variables obtained from steps (a) and (b) to a genetic reference dataset therein forming a combined genetic dataset; (d) formulating a model comprising the genetic explanatory variables obtained from the participants; and (e) analyzing the combined genetic dataset by binary logistic regression; wherein a predicted probability for the individual to have offspring that develop a developmental disorder is determined; and wherein the genetic and environmental susceptibility of an individual to have offspring that develop a developmental disorder is estimated, and wherein the individual is a pregnant woman.