Current Research Projects

Millions of genetic programs exist within the human genome. In certain racial sectors, high-risk polymorphisms exist and cause life-threatening and life-shortening diseases.

I. African American Polymorphisms

The prevalence of race-specific vascular and endothelial disease is evidenced in the African American population. Endothelium-impaired function disorders, such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus, and the severity of their complications are considerably more severe in blacks than whites. Evidence has accumulated that elucidates the genetic connection between African Americans and vascular and cardiac pathophysiology.

African American Polymorphisms FOCUS

The focus of the African American Polymorphisms research project is to access signal transduction pathways on a genome-specific scale as related to African American genetic variants carrying life-threatening codes.

Genetic Variations in the African American Population

African American genetic variants carry the sickle cell anemia and high blood pressure codes. African Americans who carry the 894T variant of a specific gene typically manifest high blood pressure.

In the United States, one of every 650 African Americans is born with sickle cell disease (SS hemoglobin), and about 8 percent are heterozygous for the sickle cell gene. Additionally, the T-786C gene in African Americans is related to ACS syndrome in females with sickle cell disease.

In sickle cell disease, the median age at death is 42 years, with pulmonary complications accounting for the majority of reduced life span.

The CRTH2 gene in the peak linkage region on Chromosome 11 is a strong candidate gene for asthma in African Americans.

In the African American population, the progression and development of coronary artery disease (CAD) is related to genetic alterations in the gene encoding for Encode™ related pathways.

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