Indian and Hindu Perspectives on Genetic Variation

该项目将吸引休斯顿大都市区的印第安社区成员参与，以了解他们对遗传研究和国际人类基因组单体型图项目的看法。该项目将涉及：1）与社区领导人进行访谈; 2）与社区成员进行焦点小组讨论; 3）成立工作组，以制定文化上适当的教育材料、研究招募策略和知情同意书; 4）成立社区咨询委员会; 5）收集血液样本，用于国际人类基因组单体型图项目和其他人类遗传变异研究; 6）样本收集后的随访。休斯顿地区印第安社区的成年成员将参加这些社区协商。这是一个理想的环境，探讨这些问题，因为休斯敦大都市区有大量的移民人口来自印度和几个完善的印度裔美国人社区。 在对社区观点进行人种学调查之后，研究人员将招募130名无关个体捐献血液样本，以研究人类遗传变异并创建人类单倍型图谱。除了产生一些与成功绘制单体型图直接相关的工作产品外，该项目还将大大增加关于社会关系对进行基因组研究的重要性的现有研究和学术成果，方法是在社区成员直接参与他们有既得利益的研究的背景下，审查社区对遗传学的具体理解。通过研究种族/族裔的交叉点， 该项目将为当代遗传研究中最具争议的方面之一提供宝贵的信息。

This project will engage members of Indian communities in the Houston metropolitan area to elicit their perspectives on genetic research and the International HapMap Project. The project will involve: 1) interviews with community leaders; 2) focus groups with community members; 3) working groups to develop culturally appropriate educational materials, research-recruitment strategies, and informed-consent instruments; 4) creation of a community advisory board; 5) collection of blood samples for use in the International HapMap Project and other studies of human genetic variation; and 6) follow-up after sample collection. Adult members of Indian communities in the Houston area will participate in these community consultations. This is an ideal setting in which to explore these issues since the Houston metropolitan area has a large immigrant population from India and several well established Indian-American communities. Following ethnographic investigations of community perspectives, researchers will recruit 130 unrelated individuals to donate blood samples for the purpose of studying human genetic variation and creating a human haplotype map. In addition to generating a number of work products of immediate relevance to the successful creation of a haplotype map, the project will add considerably to existing research and scholarship on the significance of social affiliations for the conduct of genomic research by examining community-specific understandings of genetics in a context in which members of the community are directly involved in a study in which they have a vested interest. By examining the intersection of racial/ethnic classifications and genomics, the project will provide valuable information about one of the most contentious aspects of contemporary genetic research.