Iftikhar Kullo, M.D., & colleagues receive 5-year, $5.5 million grant from National Human Genome Research Institute
Iftikhar Kullo, M.D. (I ’94, CV ’99, CLRSH ’06), and colleagues received a five-year, $5.5 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the use of genetic risk scores for common diseases to improve the role of genomics in assessing and managing disease risk. The award will build upon the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network, a consortium of medical research organizations, to fund a coordinating center and clinical sites. The work will be partly supported by the Mayo Center of Individualized Medicine.
The goal of the clinical sites is to conduct and validate genomic risk-assessment and management methods for common diseases in the general population, such as coronary heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes, by recruiting people from diverse groups, including ethnic minority populations, underserved populations and populations that experience poorer medical outcomes. The research will be done in collaboration with Mountain Park Health Center, Phoenix, Arizona, a Federally Qualified Health Center. To enhance diversity in genetic research, more than one third of the study’s participants will belong to minority groups.
Mayo Clinic colleagues involved in the award include Richard Sharp, Ph.D. (HSR ’13), co-principal investigator, director, Biomedical Ethics Program, Department of Health Sciences Research; Daniel Schaid, Ph.D. (MSEP ’86), Department of Health Sciences Research; Pedro Caraballo, M.D. (ADGM ’08), Division of General Internal Medicine; Robert Freimuth, Ph.D. (MPET ’02), Department of Health Sciences Research; Janet Olson, Ph.D. (HSR ’99), Department of Health Sciences Research; Seema Kumar, M.D. (I1 ’98, PD ’00, PDE ’03), chair, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine; Sunghwan Sohn, Ph.D. (I ’08, HSR ’09), Department of Health Sciences Research. Other colleagues include investigators from Mountain Park Health Center and Arizona State University.