Research

The CRGGH laboratory is currently engaged in using genomic tools to understand the triangular relationship between obesity, hypertension and diabetes in multiple human populations including African Americans and African populations. Recent African origin populations provide unique opportunities to study how "old" genes interact with "new" environments in the evolution of common complex diseases.

Taking advantage of the huge contrast in the distribution of risk factors at the genetic and environmental levels in contemporary African populations, the CRGGH lab is developing biological and statistical models to gain fundamental insights into diseases etiology, differential distribution of diseases and variable drug response by populations groups. The CRGGH lab is particularly interested in generating data to explain phenomena such as the "thrifty genotype hypothesis" - a hypothesis that postulates that some genes in humans have evolved to maximize metabolic efficiency, such as lipid storage and food searching behavior, and that in times of abundance, e.g., industrialized societies, these genes predispose their carriers to diseases caused by excess nutritional intake, such as obesity and T2D.

Data generated in the CRGGH lab will continue to inform discussions surrounding complicated issues such as health disparities and whether the high rate of diseases like T2D, hypertension and obesity among African Americans and other minority groups in the United States is the result of exposure to higher levels of environmental risk factors, an increased genetic susceptibility, or an interaction between adverse environments and deleterious genes.

To answer these questions, the CRGGH lab is developing multiple genetic epidemiology projects in the United States and several countries in Africa. A summary description of these projects is provided at Research Projects.