# African American Cardiovascular pharmacogenetic CONsorTium (ACCOuNT): discovery and translation

> **NIH NIH U54** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $653,336

## Abstract

Pharmacogenomics is aimed at identifying genetic variation (SNPs) that influence inter-individual differences in
drug response and adverse events and has widespread clinical relevance. Its application promises to enable
targeted drug administration, improve therapeutic outcome, and inform drug development. Pharmacogenomic
insights have improved our understanding of the underlying pathways and mechanisms behind adverse drug
reactions, which account for approximately 100,000 deaths per year in the US and markedly increase
healthcare costs.
The vast majority of pharmacogenomic association studies, which are the drivers of discovery in the field of
precision medicine, have been conducted on exclusively European populations, thereby precluding the
discovery of African American specific genetic biomarkers that affect drug phenotypes. Without scientific
inquiry on the presence and association of these SNPs to drug response, our ability to deliver precision
medicine to 1 in 7 Americans is severely hampered. To close this growing heath disparity in African American
precision medicine we formed ACCOuNT and are proposing a discovery project within cardiovascular
pharmacogenomics.
In our Discovery project, we hypothesize that through discovery efforts centered on African Americans, we will
identify predictive biomarkers of cardiovascular drug response and disease susceptibility that can be
investigated in translational outcome studies. We will test this hypothesis with the following aims: 1)
Determine genetic predictors of drug response to thrombotic therapy using genome-wide association
methodology, 2) Investigate the role of gene expression/splice variants and eQTLs on drug response
phenotypes for elucidation of biological mechanisms and genetic regulation of these phenotypes, and 3)
Create a publically available and searchable database to house the results of the genomic and transcriptomic
studies in African Americans.
Through the infrastructure of ACCOuNT we will conduct our discovery efforts with a patient-centered approach
that incorporates the input of community partners, frontline physicians and African American patients. We
anticipate that these studies will reveal novel SNP associations and gene regulation pathways. Several
potential research areas/questions may develop from this work. Our proposed genomics database will serve as
needed resource within the pharmacogenomics scientific community, which currently lacks comprehensive
genomics and transcriptomic information on African Americans. These new research avenues have the
potential of feeding seamlessly into our translational project and pilot projects thus allowing us to leverage our
Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center to move implementation of precision medicine in African Americans
faster than previous efforts.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9934885
- **Project number:** 5U54MD010723-05
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID O MELTZER
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $653,336
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9934885

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9934885, African American Cardiovascular pharmacogenetic CONsorTium (ACCOuNT): discovery and translation (5U54MD010723-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9934885. Licensed CC0.

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