Approved Research

Comparison of the genetic architecture between Latino and UKBB populations as strategy to understand its role on human health traits and diseases.

Lay summary

The lack of representation of non-European individuals on genetic studies introduces a major bias on health. The number of studies for admixed groups, i.e. Latino populations, represents less than 2% out of the total number of medical genomics studies in the field.

This proposal aims to compare the genetic architecture of the UKBB biobank participants, mostly composed of white British individuals, with admixed individuals from Latino groups, and quantify its impact in three selected medical areas of high impact at the community level, cardiometabolics traits and diseases, cancer and Covid-19 related phenotypes.

We plan to conduct a three-year project that led us: 1) to deeper explore the genomic population structure of UKBB population, and admixed groups; 2) to identify new genetic variants associated with cardiometabolics traits and diseases, cancer and Covid-19 related phenotypes; and 3) to estimate the genetic risk scores for admixed groups considering prior findings on the UKBB dataset.

This effort might facilitate the discovery of new genetic findings, that guide prevention, treatment, and monitoring efforts for admixed individuals; helping to improve health at multi-ethnic level.