One way to make health care more personalized is to use a person’s DNA sequence — or genome — to predict their risk of disease. But as the field of precision medicine grows, so have concerns that we may be leaving a large fraction of Americans out.
Disease prevalence and severity can vary considerably across racial and ethnic groups due to genetic and social factors. However, most of what we know about the genetics of human disease comes from datasets of predominantly white, European people. This lack of genomic data from people of other backgrounds makes it harder to accurately predict their health outcomes. Even less is known about the genomes of “admixed” individuals whose DNA reflect multiple ancestries.
So the question is: How do we ensure that advancements in genomic medicine will be accessible to all?
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have been awarded $11.7 million to launch the Genetic & Social Determinants of Health: Center for Admixture Science and Technology (CAST) to address this issue. CAST will use the largest genomic datasets of individuals with diverse ancestry, in combination with socioeconomic data, to better predict health and disease in admixed individuals.
Historical and recent mixing of Europeans, Native Americans, Africans and Asians has resulted in a relatively large number of admixed individuals in the U.S. Their genomes are a patchwork of DNA segments associated with different races and ethnicities, and may reflect ancestries outside of the individual’s self-identified race. The issue is physicians do not yet know how these DNA segments interact with each other to shape health outcomes, so these genomes are more difficult for them to interpret.
CAST is one of the latest additions to the renowned Centers of Excellence in Genomic Science (CEGS) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Each center focuses on a unique aspect of genomics research with the intention of blazing new trails in our understanding of human biology and disease.
“To bring the CEGS program to our campus is a huge honor, and a national recognition of UC San Diego as a major player in genomics,” said Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at UC San Diego Health, and founding faculty of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. Ohno-Machado will lead the center with Kelly Frazer, PhD, professor of pediatrics and director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, and Melissa Gymrek, PhD, assistant professor at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Jacobs School of Engineering.
— Scott LaFee