Research Center to Study Health-Race Link By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: March 18, 2008
WASHINGTON — Drugs to treat hypertension and diabetes are substantially less effective in blacks than they are in whites, one of the many mysteries involving the interaction between health and race that the National Institutes of Health hopes to unravel at a new research center.
The Center for Genomics and Health Disparities will be led by Charles N. Rotimi, former director of the National Human Genome Center at Howard University. Born in Nigeria and trained at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Rotimi has been involved in genetic epidemiology projects in Africa, China and the United States, including the Africa America Diabetes Mellitus Study, the Genetics of Obesity in Blacks Study and others.
“By understanding the nature of human genetic variation,” Dr. Rotimi said in an interview, “we can see how that overlaps with group identity and individual identity. Do those differences have implication to what we see in terms of differential response to drugs and differential distribution of diseases?”
Some geneticists have long argued that human genetic variability is so profound that race is not a scientifically useful label. Others point to clear disparities in health outcomes to argue that race matters. Recent research has found clusters of genes that can be used to identify broad racial categories like white, African-American, Hispanic or East Asian.
The center, which will be located within the National Human Genome Research Center, will seek to untangle the genetic, economic and social factors that contribute to differences in disease rates and medical responses among races.
Poster Comment:
To be a liberal, you must believe that racial differences in genetics affect every organ in the body except one.