PRS Center for Admixed Populations and Health Equity (CAPE)

NIH RePORTER · NIH · U01 · $979,778 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Polygenic risk scores (PRS), that aggregate risk across common variants in the genome, have emerged as a powerful tool towards implementing genomic medicine. Unfortunately, the vast majority of genomic data from which current PRS are estimated is coming from European ancestry individuals thus prohibiting the implementation of PRS for non-European individuals. To address this gap, multiple large-scale genomic studies are currently performed in non-European individuals. Of particular interest are individuals with recent ancestry from multiple continental sources such as African Americans and/or Hispanic Americans whose genomes are a mosaic of segments of various ancestries. Such diversity in genetic ancestry raises unique challenges in the equitable PRS development as the accuracy and bias of existing PRS varies across genomic ancestries. Unlike existing paradigm that largely views genetic ancestry as a confounder in PRS studies, we aim to fully integrate population genetics of the admixture process to yield admixture-PRS that provide equitable accuracies for all individuals irrespective of genetic ancestries. We will integrate data of over 230,000 admixed individuals across five diverse medical systems including UCLA, Mt Sinai, Colorado to develop, calibrate and benchmark PRS for admixed individuals.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10212827
Project number
1U01HG011715-01
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
Principal Investigator
Eimear Elizabeth Kenny
Activity code
U01
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2021
Award amount
$979,778
Award type
1
Project period
2021-06-08 → 2026-03-31