# Addressing the Biology of Health Disparities by Targeting Geographical Ancestry-driven Variants of Immunity

> **NIH NIH R01** · MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $666,210

## Abstract

Among ethnic groups in the US, African Americans continue to display the lowest life
expectancy and highest overall rates of cancer deaths (including colorectal, breast and prostate
cancers), infant mortality, asthma, and cardiometabolic diseases (including heart disease,
hypertension and obesity). Complex diseases and environmental insults all invoke and/or
subvert host inflammation, with individual immune and variable responses to therapeutic agents
being dictated in part by genetic variants. Precision diagnoses and prognoses of individual
patient responses rely on assessing known disease and immune markers before, during and/or
after treatment. This proposal will interrogate the functional effects and druggablity of under-
studied gene variants related to immune and drug response within the genome of individuals of
African ancestry (AAs). Immune gene variants most common among AAs and predicted to be
druggable will be engineered into cells lines of different geographical ancestry and evaluated for
functional effects in vitro and/or in vivo and modeled in silico to predict structural changes to the
wild type proteins and possible variant-drug interactions. Novel assays to screen for compounds
with therapeutic potential will be developed and used for screening. Lead compound candidates
will then be validated, optimized and tested in vitro and/or in vivo. This project has the potential
to 1) establish ancestry-related host immunity as a contributing biological parameter of complex
disease disparities; 2) fill in critical knowledge gaps by identifying novel players and
mechanisms of inflammation and their role in complex disease; and, 3) possibly lead to the
development of effective therapies to address health disparities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10916520
- **Project number:** 5R01MD017405-04
- **Recipient organization:** MOREHOUSE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Kevin Sean Kimbro
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $666,210
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-20 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10916520

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10916520, Addressing the Biology of Health Disparities by Targeting Geographical Ancestry-driven Variants of Immunity (5R01MD017405-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-10 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10916520. Licensed CC0.

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