View this page in SpanishDiets, supplements, routines and recommendations that promise to improve your health. Everyone seems to have the answer, but there is something we often forget: what works for others doesn’t necessarily work for you.
Your genetics can give you clues about how your body works, your predispositions and where to start taking better care of yourself.
At Dr. Gen we combine genetics, epigenetics and scientific knowledge to help you turn that information into more personalized, evidence-based decisions.
By Niuska Alvarez · PhD in Biomedicine
Know your genetics
What genes are, what their variants mean and how they relate to your daily life.
Step 1 of 4
It is the science that studies genes, what we inherit and how that information relates to our characteristics and our health. It also studies how it interacts with the environment and our habits.
Answer these questions to find out what your genetics can tell you.
We will give you a personalized guide, made just for you.
Some things in genetics change with age and between women and men. This way we adapt your guide to your stage of life.
Your age
You identify as
Choose one or two topics. We build your guide from your answers.
First piece of your guide
Almost one in five people in the world don’t produce a protein of the fast muscle fibers, and they train and live perfectly well.
In your guide I explain what that says about strength and endurance.
First piece of your guide
A small difference in a single gene makes some people clear caffeine much faster than others.
In your guide I explain what that means for your afternoon coffee.
First piece of your guide
Many variants influence how your body handles fats, carbohydrates and appetite. Together they give you clues about which way of eating suits you best.
In your guide I explain which ones are known.
First piece of your guide
Hundreds of DNA regions have been linked to being a “morning” or an “evening” person.
In your guide I explain how your internal clock works.
First piece of your guide
Faced with the same painkiller, some people barely activate it in their body and others activate it too quickly. The difference lies in their genes.
In your guide I explain what pharmacogenetics is and how this information helps your doctor adjust what you need.
First piece of your guide
No letter of your DNA says “Spain” or “Africa”. The clue lies in the combination of hundreds of thousands of small differences.
In your guide I explain how they are read.
First piece of your guide
Having a variant linked to a condition doesn’t mean you will have it. Your habits and your environment count too.
In your guide I explain the difference between risk and destiny.
Choose one answer.
Choose one answer.
Choose one answer.
Second piece of your guide
Your DNA combination is unique. Not even your siblings have the same one, unless you have an identical twin.
In your guide I explain what makes it unique.
Your guide is almost ready
Second piece of your guide
Each child receives half of each partner’s DNA, but the mix never repeats itself in the same way.
In your guide I tell you what can be useful to know as a couple.
Your guide is almost ready
Second piece of your guide
Your children have half of your DNA and half of their other parent’s, in a combination no one else has.
In your guide I tell you what can be useful to know from an early age.
Your guide is almost ready
Second piece of your guide
The oldest members of the family keep parts of their ancestors’ DNA that never reached you. When they are gone, that information is lost.
In your guide I explain how to make the most of it.
Your guide is almost ready
Second piece of your guide
A fact for the next family gathering: you share about 99.9% of your DNA with anyone on the planet.
In your guide I tell you what is in that 0.1% that makes us different.
Your guide is almost ready
Second piece of your guide
The more relatives take part, the easier it is to know which branch each part of your DNA comes from.
In your guide I explain why.
Your guide is almost ready
Choose one answer.
Would you buy it if you knew it would help you?
Movement and recovery: a routine that makes sense
Nutrition and digestion: start getting to know yourself
Metabolism and weight: how your body works
Energy and rest: get to know your habits
Medicines: why every body responds differently
Your roots: start with your family history
Your family history and your health
You’ve already discovered:
And waiting for you in your guide:
Recommendation based on your answers. This journey does not analyze your DNA.
This is the guide we have created especially for you:
, this is the guide we have created especially for you:
YOUR PERSONALIZED GUIDE
Movement and recovery: a routine that makes sense
Nutrition and digestion: start getting to know yourself
Metabolism and weight: how your body works
Energy and rest: get to know your habits
Medicines: why every body responds differently
Your roots: start with your family history
Your family history and your health
Your guide is on its way to your inbox
If you had already confirmed your email before, there’s no need: we’ll send it to you directly.
If you had already confirmed your email before, there’s no need: we’ll send it to you as soon as it’s ready.
Can’t find it? Check your junk or spam folder, and add contact@dr-gen.com to your contacts.
Recommendation based on your answers. This journey does not analyze your DNA.
PhD in Biomedicine,
researcher and founder of Dr. Gen.
Dr. Niuska Alvarez, PhD, MBAGeneticist and cancer researcher
I’m a Venezuelan and Spanish scientist and a consultant in personalized genetics. I have spent more than ten years training and working in science. At 18 I moved to the United States to study, and that was the start of a path that took me from genetics and biotechnology to cancer research.
Since then I have worked with cancer cells and stem cells, in research and in laboratories where science is applied to diagnosis and to the analysis of medicines.
Today I want to bring that experience closer to people: to help you understand your genetics and how it can help you look after your health through prevention.
After graduating in Genetics and Biotechnology, I worked as a researcher at the Yale Cancer Center. There I studied how cancer cells respond to radiation.
I also had the chance to work in applied science: at Labcorp I worked on molecular diagnostics of cancer, analyzing genetic changes that help characterize tumors. At Valisure I took part in setting up the laboratory and in developing and validating methods to analyze the quality of medicines.
I came to Spain to keep training at two of its most prominent universities: the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), where I did my master’s in Advanced Genetics, and the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), where I earned my PhD in Biomedicine. I also did an MBA at EAE Business School. The MBA had a lot to do with what I wanted to do as well: for science to become projects and products that reach people.
My specialty combines genetics, cell biology and cancer. I’m interested in understanding what happens inside cells, what role our genes play and what changes when a disease appears. During my PhD I focused on glioblastoma, a fast-growing type of brain cancer and one of the most aggressive. I studied how its cells behave and how they interact with the tissue around them, working with cancer cells, stem cells and brain organoids: small models of brain tissue grown in the laboratory. It was preclinical research, that is, studies to understand the disease and explore possible treatments before testing them in people.
All of this experience has also led me to look at health through prevention. Besides studying what happens when a disease appears, I’m interested in what we can know beforehand: which predispositions we have and how that information can help us look after our health.
I like to think of it as “listening to our genes”. They don’t tell us exactly what is going to happen to us, but they can give information to guide prevention and, when appropriate, the follow-up and early detection of diseases such as cancer. Dr. Gen was born from that desire to bring genetics closer to people.
Universitat de Barcelona
Cum laude
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
EAE Business School
Business Administration
University of New Haven
Cum laude
Yale University
Yale Cancer Center · Therapeutic radiology
Instituto de Biología Evolutiva
IBE · CSIC–UPF
Here you can find some of the articles and the book chapter I have taken part in.
In this chapter we explain how DNA is organized in stem cells and in some cancer cells, and why that organization matters.
“Stem cells and stem like cancer cells chromatin dynamics”. With Carlos Mateos-Sánchez, Maria Manterola and Ana Sevilla Hernández.
A review of how light is used to treat cancer and what is being researched when it is combined with other therapies.
I took part in developing a tool to activate genes in human stem cells and study what they do.
Research on the role of the Ultrabithorax and apterous genes in the formation of membranous and hardened wings.
A study of the tumor’s interactions with its microenvironment in brain organoids. Conference abstract.
My research combines genetics, cell biology and cancer, with a special focus on glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive brain cancers and one that currently has no cure. That experience has also led me to take an interest in how genetics can help us act before a disease appears.
I study what allows these cells to keep growing and why some of them resist treatments.
I work with small models of brain tissue grown in the laboratory to study how they interact with tumor cells.
I study the function of genes and the changes in cells to better understand cancer and how it responds to treatments.
Knowing our predispositions can help us make decisions about our health and guide follow-up and early detection.
I combine cell cultures, organoids, microscopy and analysis of genes and proteins to study cancer. Based on that experience, I now also want to bring genetics closer to prevention: to better understand predispositions and what information can be useful for looking after our health.
After so many years studying genes, cells and cancer, I want that knowledge to be useful in everyday life too. Genetics can help us understand some of our differences and predispositions, and offer information to look after our health through prevention. I always interpret it alongside what also matters: our habits, family history and environment.
A question to start with
It keeps you awake. Someone else sleeps well. Genes may play a role, alongside dose, timing and other factors.
The ability to digest lactose can have a genetic basis. But not every symptom after dairy is caused by lactose.
We share genes, but also habits and environments. Family history deserves to be understood in context.
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