Patent ID: 7933912

Claim:
A bioinformatics method for generating a compilation containing combinations of attributes that co-associate with a query attribute associated with a group of individuals, comprising: a) accessing, within a first computer memory, expanded attribute profiles associated with individuals, wherein the expanded attribute profiles each comprise a set of primary attributes and a set of secondary attributes, and wherein the secondary attributes are derived from the primary attributes and wherein the set of secondary attributes has lower resolution that the set of primary attributes and at least one secondary attribute is a categorical attribute, wherein said categorical attribute includes at least one of a genetic, epigenetic, pangenetic, physical, behavioral, situational, or historical attribute that encompasses at least one primary attribute that is a numerical attribute and is derived through a heuristic rule applied to one or more primary attributes; b) receiving a query attribute which identifies, within the expanded attribute profiles in the first computer memory, a set of expanded query-attribute-positive attribute profiles associated with a group of query-attribute-positive individuals and a set of expanded query-attribute-negative attribute profiles associated with a group of query-attribute-negative individuals; c) selecting an expanded query-attribute-positive attribute profile from the set of expanded query-attribute-positive attribute profiles and, a subset of expanded query-attribute-negative attribute profiles from the set of expanded query-attribute-negative attribute profiles; d) determining a set of candidate attributes by selecting attributes from the expanded query-attribute-positive attribute profile that do not occur in at least a predetermined portion of the subset of expanded query-attribute-negative attribute profiles; e) computing the frequencies of occurrence of combinations of the candidate attributes in the set of expanded query-attribute-positive attribute profiles and in the set of expanded query-attribute-negative attribute profiles; and f) storing, within a second computer memory, one or more candidate attribute combinations having higher frequencies of occurrence in the set of expanded query-attribute-positive attribute profiles than in the set of expanded query-attribute-negative attribute profiles to generate a compilation of attribute combinations that co-occur with the query attribute.