Who actually gets sick, and who doesn't
Genetics plays a central role in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. But carrying a risk gene says very little about whether, or how badly, a person will be affected. NeuroPenetrance measures biology to close that gap.
The blind spot: incomplete penetrance
Penetrance is the chance that a person carrying a particular mutation actually develops the condition linked to it. In brain conditions that chance is usually well below 100%, which doctors call incomplete penetrance. Two people can carry the very same mutation and live completely different lives: one develops profound disability, the other never has a symptom.
A 2026 re-analysis in the European Journal of Human Genetics found that widely used penetrance figures had been substantially overstated, with some variants dropping from an assumed 10–40% to near zero. Population statistics are a poor substitute for measuring an individual's biology.
Why we start with blood
DNA is the recipe; it doesn't change over a lifetime. Gene expression (RNA) shows what the body is doing right now. In whole blood, it reveals the state of the immune system, and in depression that state shifts: slightly more neutrophils, fewer lymphocytes, and in about one in five patients a clear inflammatory profile.
That is Engine 2: a small, interpretable blood signature that we tested on eight independent studies, and an app that partners and researchers can use today. It identifies and stratifies; with partners' follow-up and trial data, we work towards predicting disease development and treatment response. See the evidence →
Engine 1, in development: patient-derived neurons
The deeper question, why the same mutation leads to illness in one person and resilience in another, needs a more direct tissue. Engine 1 grows a person's own cells into neurons from stem cells and measures what their biology actually does under controlled conditions. This builds on the founder's Fulbright work with patient-derived stem cells at the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin. It is in development, and we are open to partners and collaborators for it.
Where the science goes next
Blood immune signature
A 6-gene whole-blood RNA signature, tested on 8 studies (779 people), with the PenetranSci app for single samples and whole cohorts.
Inflammation and response
Check the inflammatory subgroup against measured CRP; test it as a predictor of treatment response with partners' trial data; add plasma proteomics to sharpen the signal.
Engine 1
Patient-derived neurons to measure how risk genes behave in a person's own cells, the basis for true penetrance profiling.
One measurement, different questions
Biotech & pharma
Hidden biological differences between patients are a major reason brain-disorder trials fail. Stratifying patients by their immune biology attacks that at the source. For partners →
Researchers
Open data, open methods and honest results, plus a free app for academic research and room for joint studies. For researchers →
Clinicians & families, in the future
A measured signal specific to one person could one day guide counselling and follow-up. Today our tools are for research use only.