While it is known that African Americans suffer a disparately high prevalence of many diseases, the National Institutes of Health is establishing a new center to research and find answers why.
The NIH Intramural Center for Genomics and Health Disparities is a new venue for research about the way populations are impacted by diseases, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The center will employ a genomics approach, collecting and analyzing genetic, clinical, lifestyle and socio-economic data to study a range of clinical conditions that have puzzled and troubled public health experts for decades.
The new center will be directed by internationally renowned genetic epidemiologist Charles N. Rotimi, Ph.D., a native of Nigeria and former director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University.
“The priority of our center will be to understand how we can use the tools of genomics to address some of the issues we see with health disparities,” Rotimi said.
Genomes represent the total genetic information in the chromosomes of an organism, including genes and DNA sequences. The genomes of any two individuals are very similar. However, the subtle genomic differences that remain contribute to unique biological traits, such as hair and eye color, as well as susceptibility to diseases and individual responses to drugs.
Genetic epidemiologists study such genetic differences, in combination with environmental factors, to assess disease susceptibility and resistance among individuals and population groups.
“The availability of tremendous expertise and the remarkable research infrastructure at NIH will make our research activities more robust and will allow us to tackle questions in ways that were not feasible in the past,” said Rotimi.
Rotimi, who holds an M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been extensively involved in a number of genetic epidemiology projects. These projects have included the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus study, the Howard University Family Study, the Genetics of Obesity in Blacks Study, and the Black Women Health Study. Rotimi is founding and current president of the African Society of Human Genetics.
The new national genomics center focused on health disparities was applauded in St. Louis, where Washington University School of Medicine has been an international leader in studying the genome and applying this new knowledge.
“Minorities are affected by diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, at a much higher rate compared to the majority,” said Cherilynn Shadding, Ph.D., director of outreach at the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine.
“While environmental factors are important, most diseases that exist have some genetic basis, so such factors should be evaluated.”
Shadding, an African American, said the new center “will begin to exploit some of these factors and work toward closing these gaps.”
Shadding said research being conducted in St. Louis may one day contribute to the mission of the new national center. She said the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University is “part of an international consortium that will conduct foundational work to look for genetic differences among various global populations using the latest technologies in genomics.”
The Genome Sequencing Center here will study groups including African communities in Nigeria and Kenya and minority groups in several regions of the U.S.” Shadding said the results produced by this St. Louis-based project will undoubtedly serve as “an invaluable resource” for the investigators at the new national center “and across the globe.”
Shadding’s outreach responsibilities to minority science students in the U.S., previously reported in the American, will have a counterpart at the new national center, which will provide training opportunities for students and established scientists from developing countries and from minority groups in the U.S.
“This new center will be an NIH resource to help move research related to the complex factors underlying health disparities into the 21st century,” said NIH director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D.
“Synergy among the center’s genetic and genomic researchers and disease experts in existing NIH research programs will advance our understanding of health disparities for the benefit of minority groups and all Americans.”
The new national center will be established within the NIH Office of Intramural Research and administered by the National Human Genome Research Institute, which also funds the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University, with additional support from various federal agencies. Its research activities will take place on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Md.
