Former postbaccalaureate trainee, Keolu Fox, was recently showcased in the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) news from the Office of the Director. Mr. Fox was an intramural research training award fellow at the CRGGH before moving on to the PhD program in the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington.

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Dr. Gibbons is currently at the Morehouse School of Medicince where he serves as the director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute and professor of physiology and medicine. Dr. Gibbons is no stranger to the NIH having served most recently on the advisory council for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He also currently serves as a Working Group member of the CRGGH.

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Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, CRGGH postdoctoral fellow, Fasil Tekola Ayele, Ph.D., along with CRGGH Deputy Director and Director, shed light on the genetic basis of endemic nonfilarial elephantiasis, otherwise known as podoconiosis or "mossy foot". This international collaborative research project is the first study of a non-communicable disease using genome-wide association for any African population.

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The CRGGH was honored to co-host this important event with Dr. Fatimah Jackson, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina (held on March 19-20, 2012). The conference sought to inform our understanding of health disparities observed among African-descended peoples by exploring the genetic and cultural diversity of the. Towards this goal, the conference program highlighted research from leading and world-renown scientists spanning the fields of genomics, epigenetics, biotechnology, ethics, linguistics, paleontology and anthropology.

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On Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 12:00 PM EST/9:00 AM PST, CRGGH Director Dr. Charles Rotimi will speak during a webinar hosted by Science Magazine and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and sponsored by Affymetrix. The Webinar will be co-presented by Carlos Bustamante, PhD from Stanford University School of Medicine.

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Dr. Charles Rotimi, CRGGH Director, was invited to guest lecture at a theoretical and practical course organized by the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile. Attendees to the Genetics of Diseases and Human Populations course included students from South and Central America as well as the Caribbean.

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CRGGH researchers will have another strong showing at this year's American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) annual meeting, which is jointly held with the International Congress of Human Genetics (ICHG). This will be the 61st meeting of ASHG and the 12th ICHG meeting to be held in Montreal, Canada. Our research team is represented in eleven abstracts as first authors or collaborators. Check out the links below:

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Carlos Bustamante, Ph.D. (a member of the CRGGH International Working Group) recently published an article in the journal Nature where he and others describe the need for genomic advances to extend to all corners of the globe. In order for this to occur, the authors contend that "other ethnic groups must be studied to ensure that more people benefit" from genomics.

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The recently launched Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) initiative, a partnership between the National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust and the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) has energized the African genomics community. With the participation of our Center Director, Charles Rotimi; Deputy Director, Adebowale Adeyemo, Program Assistant, Shirley Freeman, and me (Emmanuel Peprah, Research Fellow) the CRGGH provided considerable leadership in the implementation of the initial phase of the H3Africa project.

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The World Health Organization has listed endemic non-filarial elephantiasis known as podoconiosis as a neglected tropical disease. Podoconiosis, also known as "mossy foot", is a debilitating condition that affects the feet and legs of those exposed to soil with a specific geochemical makeup. Understanding the genetic contributions to this disease is one of the major research projects headed by the CRGGH.

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Check out the newly updated CRGGH website. Since its inception in mid-year 2008, the CRGGH has grown both in staff and in research projects. We have recently updated the corresponding web pages to provide up-to-date information and have rolled out two new sections

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The 60th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) will be held in Washington, D.C. from Tuesday, November 2 through Saturday, November 6, 2010. The ASHG Annual Meeting is a premier meeting where the latest and greatest concerning genetics is presented through platform and invited sessions, poster sessions, exhibits and much more. The CRGGH is excited to have many of its staff and trainees present at this year's conference.

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On October 10-12, 2010, the 19^th Annual Meeting of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society was held in Boston, Massachusetts. The Scientific Theme was statistical methods for analysis of rare variants and next-generation sequence data.

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In the wonderful setting of Waterville Valley, New Hampshire I had the great pleasure of putting the "Science Policy Analyst" part of my title to use at this year's Gordon Research Conference series dedicated to Science and Technology Policy.

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As part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Medical Association (NMA) held a special workshop honoring the accomplishments of the NIDDK. Dr. Rotimi, CRGGH Director, was invited to give the keynote address for the event.

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This summer I attended the 15th Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (SISG) at the University of Washington. SISG was in session from June 14-July 2, 2010. It provided a crash course in topics such as Probability and Statistical Inference, Computing for Statistical Genetics, Gene Expression Profiling , MCMC for Genetics, Coalescent Theory, Advanced QTL Mapping, GWAS Data Cleaning.

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The International Society on Hypertension in Blacks (ISHIB) along with the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) are cosponsoring this 3-day scientific program co-chaired by Dr. Charles Rotimi (CRGGH Director) and Dr. Angela Brown (Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine). The conference will be held in the Washington, DC area on July 9-11, 2010.

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It has been no secret to the CRGGH that population-based genome studies in Africa are important not only to the field of human genetic variation and genomics but to the continent of Africa as a whole. Today, the NIH and the Wellcome Trust take significant steps towards solidifying a relationship aimed at supporting such studies across multiple populations in Africa. Dr. Rotimi, Director of the CRGGH along with Drs. Collins (NIH Director) and Green (NHGRI Director) are in London, England today to launch this partnership with Wellcome Trust, represented by Sir Mark Walport (Wellcome Trust Director).

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The 1000 Genomes Project, an international public-private consortium to build the most detailed map of human genetic variation to date, announces the completion of the goals of the initial pilot projects. The 1000 Genomes Project has been underway since 2008 with three pilot projects to test multiple strategies of cataloging genetic variation in the different populations chosen for the study.

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Dr. Adebowale Adeyemo, Staff Scientist at the CRGGH, has been appointed Deputy Director of the Center. In this new position, Dr. Adeyemo will assist the CRGGH Director, Dr. Charles Rotimi, in his leadership of the Center. The central mission of the CRGGH, a trans-NIH intramural initiative, is to advance research into the role of genetics, genomics, lifestyle and culture in disease etiology, differential susceptibility to disease and variable drug response at the individual and population levels. Dr. Adeyemo came to the CRGGH as one of the founding members of the new Center and since then, has continued his research in genetic epidemiology, designed new studies, led major data analysis efforts, mentored research fellows and trainees, and participated in multiple national and international research consortia.

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Bashira Charles, Ph.D. is a current CRGGH postdoc and has directly benefited from a National Research Service Award (NRSA). Dr. Charles will be presenting her work titled "Genetic Epidemiology of Uric Acid in African-Americans" at the NIH day-long symposium "A Tribute to Ruth L. Kirschstein, M.D.: Inspiring the Best in Others".

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The 2010 Human Genome Meeting will be held in Montpellier, France May 18 to May 21 with the theme of "Next Generation Genomics and Medicine". Dr. Rotimi will be among the distinguished experts presenting at this year's conference. His featured talk is titled "Genetic diversity and health: Opportunities and challenges presented by African genomes".

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In furthering our commitment to trainees (see #5--http://crggh.nih.gov/mission.cfm), we welcome Fasil Tekola (photo on the right), a returning pre-doctoral student (Mr. Tekola is a trainee at the CRGGH in six-month intervals) and Keolu Fox (photo on the left), a summer intern. Mr. Tekola comes to us from Ethiopia by way of the UK and Mr. Fox comes to us from the University of Maryland. We're excited to have these two promising young scientists and we look forward to a productive summer and beyond. Check out their bios below to get to know them a little better.

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The CRGGH would like to welcome you to an exciting feature of our Web site. The CRGGH Blog will have regular postings on relevant news and events such as conferences, new research projects and other announcements. In addition, we will also be providing a forum for commentary and perspectives on issues relating to the mission and research currently being carried out at the center.

The goal of the blog is to promote discussion and dialogue between the scientific and public community on topics ranging from interpretation of genome-wide association studies to the inclusion of diverse ethnic populations in research initiatives, to addressing the need for recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical science. As our first point of discussion, we welcome suggestions from the outside community on issues they would like to discuss. We will be posting our first blog topic within the month and we look forward to everyone's comments and discussion.