“Academic” Genes Identified

An international team of researchers has identified the set of genes that are linked with academic performance, a new study published in the journal Science reveals. The study involved researchers from Cornell University, New York University, Erasmus University, Harvard University, the University of Queensland and the University of Bristol who looked at more than 125,000 adults from United States, Australia and 13 western European countries.

The researchers compared the genetic markers of the participants with their level of education achieved, including whether they had graduated from college or not.

“We believe our study shows that a feasible and promising approach to social-science genetics is to use very large samples. Our sample has 125,000 individuals. Previous studies have used much smaller samples – typically 100 to 2,000 individuals. If genetic associations with other behavioral traits have effect sizes as small as those in our data, then sample sizes need to be much larger to produce accurate findings”, Cornell University’s Daniel Benjamin said.

Source-Medindia