Latest news with #AllofUs
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Race and genetics do not line up well, new study confirms
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The racial and ethnic groups people identify with may not accurately represent their genetic backgrounds or ancestries, a new study of people in the United States suggests. This discrepancy between people's self-reported identities and their genetics is important for scientists to acknowledge as they strive to develop medical treatments tailored to different patients, the researchers behind the study say. "This paper is very important because it clarifies at the highest resolution the relationship between genomic diversity and racial/ethnic categories in the US," said study co-author Eduardo Tarazona-Santos, a professor of human population genetics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The findings are "critical to develop appropriate precision medicine solutions for all," he told Live Science in an email. Precision medicine tailors treatments to individual patients, taking their genes, environment and lifestyle factors into account. In their study, published Thursday (June 5) in The American Journal of Human Genetics, Tarazona-Santos and his colleagues analyzed the DNA of more than 230,000 people who contributed to the All of Us research database. This trove of data has been compiled through a National Institutes of Health program aimed at advancing precision medicine by recruiting people from diverse and underrepresented populations. Historically, many large-scale genetics studies have predominantly included people of European ancestry, making efforts like the All of Us project crucial for reducing medical inequity. However, the program has faced significant funding cuts in recent months, which has significantly slowed recruitment and progress. Related: What's the difference between race and ethnicity? Using a method called principal component analysis, the team identified genetic similarities and differences among the people included in the database. They also used genetic catalogs that contain DNA samples from all over the world, such as the 1000 Genomes Project, as a way to assess how people's genetic ancestry compared with the racial (white, Black or African American, Asian American) and ethnicity (Hispanic/Latino or not) categories used in the All of Us questionnaire. People who identified as being from the same racial and ethnic groups had a number of genetic differences, the team found. In fact, "most genetic variance is within race and ethnicity groups rather than between groups," the study authors wrote in the report. Rather than sorting people into "distinct clusters" divided by racial and ethnic lines, the analyses found that people within different races and ethnicities show "gradients" of genetic variation. "We found gradients of genetic variation that cut across those categories," the authors wrote. The new study's findings counter a controversial paper published in Nature in 2024 that had also analyzed genomic data provided by All of Us participants. At the time, the paper was criticized by some experts, who argued that the technique used to analyze the race and ethnicity data could be misconstrued to support the incorrect idea that humans can be neatly categorized into distinct races. The new study, which used a different data-crunching technique, found the opposite. The research also found that, even within the same ethnic and racial group, people show genetic variation across different U.S. states. This could reflect the "historical impacts of U.S. colonization, the transatlantic slave trade, and recent migrations," the authors wrote. A key example of this was seen in participants who identified as Hispanic or Latino and lived in states like California, Texas and Arizona, who were found to have a high proportion of Native American ancestry compared with Hispanic and Latino people in other parts of the U.S. This makes sense considering many of these states were historically part of Mexico, which has a large population of people with mixed Indigenous and European ancestries, the researchers argued. By contrast, of people who identified as Hispanic or Latino, those in New York were found to have the highest proportion of African ancestry, which is "consistent with recent migration from the Caribbean to New York." The authors said their findings show that the genetic backgrounds of people in the U.S. are highly complex and that "social constructs of race and ethnicity do not accurately reflect underlying genetic ancestry." In light of this, the researchers have said they "do not recommend using race and ethnicity as proxies for ancestry in genetic studies." RELATED STORIES —'Racism is a global public health crisis': Author Layal Liverpool says racist ideas still pervade medicine, and that hurts all of us —Scientific consensus shows race is a human invention, not biological reality —Racial bias is baked into algorithms doctors use to guide treatment Tesfaye Mersha, a professor of pediatrics and a human genetics researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the University of Cincinnati, said that he agrees that these self-reported categories should not be used in genetic studies. Instead, the categories should be confined to social studies "where we know they will have a big impact," he told Live Science in an email. That said, Mersha also warned against overinterpreting the study's takeaways about regional and state-level genetic variation. "Some states had very low participant numbers, which may skew regional estimates and limit generalizability," he noted. "Moreover, high population mobility across states blurs geographic boundaries, especially in the absence of multigenerational ancestry data," he said. In short, because people move around a lot, it's difficult to draw conclusions without having a clear sense of how long their families have been based in a given state.
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Who be di Iyabo Ojo daughter wey her wedding dey totori online users
Actress and content creator, Priscilla Ojo dey run part two of di many weddings wey she dey do wit her Tanzanian bobo, Juma Jux. Priscilla wey be di pikin of popular actress, Iyabo Ojo don so far run do first half wetin local tori pipo dey call four weddings for wia her bobo come from, Tanzania for February. Dem do Nikkah and also civil joining for di kontri. Dis na wia she for get her Muslim name Hadiza Mkambala. Tori be say dem enta Nigeria to run di Yoruba rights. Di whole mata around di wedding start to trend around August of last year wen di two both of dem snap with aso-ebi for wetin bin look like pre-wedding shoot. E cause serious debate around di kontri giving say her collabo series, wit social media star Enioluwa, All of Us bin just launch just di month bifor. According to Priscilla, she bin meet Juma Jux wey im real name na Juma Mussa Mkambala for business trip wey she go do for Rwanda. Di two of dem bin jam for di hotel wey she bin dey lodge at which time di 35-year-old musician give di 24-year-old im number to text but she say she no gree but las-las dem land for inside di marriage sha. Howeva di Ololufemi singer tok say wen e see her, e bin know say na she go be im wife. Who be Priscilla Priscilla Ajoke Ojo Mkambala na content creator, actress and business woman wey dem born for di 13 March, 2001. She get her Bachelors Degree for Mass Communication for June 2021 but even bifor all dat time she don cement herself for di content creation space for Nigeria social media as teenager. From her fashionista influence wey she dey slay wit her clothes come go di content wey she create wit di likes of Broda Shaggi. Priscilla reach di height of her social media fame afta she collabo wit bestie and fellow content creator Adeoluwa for August 2024 wey dem call, All of US. She bin act for di thriller series as Ivy and also gbab credit of associate producer for di project. She dey also run her own bag line, her clothing brand as well as work as housing agent for Nigeria.
Miami Herald
27-02-2025
- Health
- Miami Herald
A diabetes drug may cut the risk of certain skin cancers, study finds
Metformin is a medication prescribed to help manage type 2 diabetes. Recent research suggests, however, this medication may potentially decrease risk of certain types of skin cancer. A retrospective case-control study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology explored whether metformin could reduce the risk of non-melanoma skin cancers, specifically basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). What the research says Researchers analyzed data from the All of Us research database, which compiles health information from a diverse group of participants, to assess the potential impact of metformin on these two cancers. Metformin reduced the risk of basal cell carcinoma across all sex and ethnicity groups, the researchers found. For squamous cell carcinoma patients, though, the lines weren't as clear. In some cases, metformin users saw a significantly lower risk of squamous cell carcinoma, but that reduction was not significant in African American patients. The results suggest metformin may offer protective benefits against certain types of non-melanoma skin cancers, though its effectiveness may vary among different populations. It is important to note that metformin's effect on skin cancer is controversial and researchers do not yet understand how it might work to reduce the risk of certain skin cancers. Other studies have found that metformin may have an anti-inflammatory effect that lowers the risk of certain skin cancers, but we do not know this for certain. Side effects of metformin Metformin is generally considered safe and well-tolerated by most people, though side effects like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea may occur in up to 30% of people taking this medication. Less frequent side effects can include chest discomfort, weakness, headache, rhinitis, hypoglycemia and vitamin B12 deficiency (with long-term metformin use). A rare but serious side effect is lactic acidosis, with risk factors being older age, having a history of alcoholism and hepatic and/or renal impairment. Who might benefit? More research is needed to determine exactly how metformin may or may not help to reduce skin cancer risk. Based on the current evidence we do have, my advice is to discuss the use of metformin with your doctor if you have a history of multiple skin cancers and also a history of high blood sugar. I'm still on sabbatical and no longer run Baumann Cosmetic Institute, so please follow @SkinTypeSolutions on social media, or visit if you have questions.
