Admixture Mapping of Coronary Heart Disease and Associated Metabolomic Markers in African Americans

克鲁兹博士是一名执业心脏病专家，对研究血液循环的遗传基础很感兴趣。 生物标志物及其与健康和疾病的关系。克鲁兹博士的研究兴趣主要集中在 历史上研究不足的群体和了解不同的基因祖先如何在疾病中发挥作用 发病机制。非洲裔美国人患有许多慢性病，尤其是 心血管疾病。非洲裔美国人也没有被纳入许多心血管研究， 有些结果可能不适用于他们。使这些问题复杂化的是， 传统的基因分析不是为了解释非洲人相对复杂的基因构成 由于他们的非洲血统和与其他人口的混杂，美国人有。该项目旨在 确定与冠心病相关的循环代谢物，调查 起源于非洲大陆的基因组，并利用这种相关性来识别特定的基因 与非洲血统和冠心病有关。通过密集的实验室和教学 在代谢组学和遗传学方面的培训，克鲁兹博士将利用贝丝以色列女执事医疗中心的资源 中心、哈佛医学院和相关机构研究一种具有重大社会意义的疾病 冲击力。克鲁兹博士位于一个多学科的实验室里，他将利用新的代谢组学 更好地破译遗传祖先如何影响水平的技术和新的遗传分析策略 循环中的代谢物。他将使用混合映射技术，其中考虑到 由非裔美国人组成的异质基因组，以更好地了解独特的基因组 新近混合的种群结构可能影响代谢物的基线循环水平。vbl.使用 杰克逊心脏研究和多种族研究的非裔美国人的血浆样本 动脉粥样硬化，代谢组学将被用来测量循环代谢物的水平并评估 代谢产物与冠心病的发生有关，并进行了超过15年的随访。临床特征 与冠心病相关的糖尿病、高血压、肥胖症和高脂血症也会 分析过了。使用混合映射，感兴趣的代谢物和 基因组中的非洲血统将被识别，从而允许更高的能力识别特定的相关 这些地区的变种。由于精准医疗提供了更个性化的护理承诺，它是当务之急 关于生物医学研究界，以考虑所有成员的独特基因构成 社会。该项目旨在为历史上研究不足的一群人提供特定的病理生理信息。 人民。最终，克鲁兹博士打算利用他的研究努力，为在校学生提供更好的医疗服务 和未得到充分服务的人群，进而改善整个社会的健康。

Dr. Cruz is a practicing cardiologist with an interest in investigating the genetic underpinnings of circulating biomarkers and their association with health and disease. Dr. Cruz’s research interests primarily focus on historically understudied groups and understanding how varied genetic ancestry plays a role in disease pathogenesis. African Americans suffer disproportionately from many chronic diseases and in particular cardiovascular disease. African Americans have also not been included in many cardiovascular studies, raising the possibility that some results may not be applicable to them. Compounding these issues is the fact that traditional genetic analyses are not designed to account for the relatively complex genetic makeup that African Americans have, due to their African ancestry and admixture with other populations. This project aims to identify the circulating metabolites that are associated with coronary heart disease, investigate the portions of the genome that are of African continental origin, and use this correlation to identify specific genes that are associated both with African ancestry and coronary heart disease. Through intensive laboratory and didactic training in metabolomics and genetics, Dr. Cruz will harness the resources of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, and associated institutions to examine a disease of significant societal impact. Situated in a multi-disciplinary laboratory, Dr. Cruz will take advantage of novel metabolomic technologies and novel genetic analytical strategies to better decipher how genetic ancestry influences levels of circulating metabolites. He will use admixture mapping techniques, which take into account the heterogeneous genomic make up of African Americans, to better understand how the unique genomic structure of recently admixed populations may influence baseline circulating levels of metabolites. Using plasma samples from African American participants of the Jackson Heart Study and Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, metabolomics will be used to measure levels of circulating metabolites and assess which metabolites are associated with incident coronary heart disease, with over 15 years of follow up. Clinical traits associated with coronary heart disease like, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and hyperlipidemia will also be analyzed. Using admixture mapping, regions of potential association between the metabolites of interest and African ancestry in the genome will be identified, allowing for higher power in identifying specific associated variants in those regions. As precision medicine offers the promise of more personalized care, it is incumbent on the biomedical research community to take into account the unique genetic makeup of all members of society. This project aims to offer specific pathophysiologic information for a historically understudied group of people. Ultimately Dr. Cruz intends on using his research efforts to provide better medical care to understudied and underserved populations, and in turn improve the health of society as a whole.