EAGER: Testing genotype-hormone associations in circumpolar ancestral and descendant populations

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This is an EAGER proposal to establish the foundation for subsequent research on the environmental, behavioral, and genetic determinants of reproductive hormone levels in indigenous arctic women. There is strong scientific evidence that concentrations of the steroid hormones investigated in this project influence the capacity to conceive and are significant risk factors for several diseases (e.g., breast and other cancers, cardiovascular disease), yet very little is known about the variation of these hormones among pre-menopausal women in the arctic. This EAGER project is an experimental project designed to evaluate whether genetic variation at specific loci contribute to hormonal variation in circumpolar ancestral (Central Asian) and descendant (indigenous South American) populations. The researchers expect this project to provide 1) validated field, laboratory and statistical approaches to hormone concentrations in women, and 2) valuable and novel data for the anticipated future study of circumpolar populations. In addition, the PI will be actively involved in community outreach in Alaska, Canada, and Greenland in order to inform indigenous communities of the findings from the EAGER research and solicit community interest and collaboration in a broader circumpolar study. This project is potentially transformative in both the scientific potential to define a specific genome related to steroid hormones and in the broader impacts of creating a community collaborative project that has the potential to gain deeper insight into fatal diseases affecting these communities.