The head of a genetics research company has her sights set on creating a map of the Caribbean genome, which would be the first of its kind, she said.

Carika Weldon, the founder and chief executive of CariGenetics, also provided updates on the company’s research into the genetic likelihood of cancer among people of Caribbean descent at an event for medical doctors.

She said: “Everyone has a genome study apart from us, so we are hoping to enter the chat and make sure that we’re doing this because we need the data.”

Dr Weldon was speaking during Docs for Dinner, hosted by Bermuda Healthcare Services and the Brown-Darrell Clinic.

The event was designed to be a chance for physicians to connect and receive updates in the field of medicine.

Dr Weldon said a project to map out the entire Caribbean genome — the entire genetic material of an organism — was expected to include 100,000 participants, by 2027.

She said that the work would “get us on par with everyone that’s doing it”.

During the dinner, which was livestreamed by TNN, Dr Weldon said that her research was intended to direct precision medicine, which is medical assistance tailored for the individual.

She told doctors that last year she led the first study into genetic markers for breast cancer in Caribbean women.

Dr Weldon explained that women of non-European ancestry were more likely to die from breast cancer than those of European ancestry.

She added that although nine of the top ten countries for cancer rates were European, all of the top ten countries that saw the highest death rates for cancer were non-European and four were Caribbean.

Dr Weldon said that the aim was to help Caribbean women, who were statistically at more risk of developing breast cancer, take preventive measures.

The experiment tested two groups of 51 women with four Caribbean grandparents.

The test group was made of women who had breast cancer, while the control group had no cancer diagnoses in their immediate family.

Dr Weldon said that 20 per cent of the 51 women tested had a gene that likely caused their cancer.

She added that 36 out of the 51 women were diagnosed with breast cancer when they were under 50 years of age, with only three of them having it caused by a genetic marker.

Dr Weldon said: “When we took that to some genetic experts, they said ‘we’re definitely missing stuff, that is way too low’.”

Dr Weldon said that she also planned to conduct screenings for prostate cancer, which she said was “much worse” than breast cancer rates.

She explained that Bermuda had the sixth highest rate of prostate cancer diagnoses in the world.

She added that seven of the top ten countries in the world for prostate cancer deaths were Caribbean, with one in six Caribbean men dying from the disease.

Dr Weldon said that the study would involve 150 men who had relatives with cancer to see if they were at risk.

CariGenetics partnered with the charity DailyMale, to work with a Bermuda cohort of the Caribbean prostate cancer genome study.

Recruitment and sample collection is to start in November, while seven other Caribbean countries were expected to join the project.

Dr Weldon said that enthusiasm for the study had been overwhelming.

She added that, because hers was the only study known to have “pure ancestry from the Caribbean”, pharmaceutical companies had shown interest.