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Yahoo
3 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.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
DNA links modern Picuris Pueblo tribe to ancient New Mexico site
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -DNA obtained from the remains of people who inhabited Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a millennium ago is helping to link present-day members of a Pueblo tribe to this historic site known for its distinctive architecture and sacred meaning to Indigenous peoples. Researchers examined data on ancient DNA previously obtained from human remains at Pueblo Bonito, along with DNA newly obtained from 13 present-day members of the Picuris Pueblo tribe and from tooth and bone remains excavated in the 1960s of 16 people who lived at the tribe's home site 500 to 1,500 years ago. They found a close genetic connection between present-day Picuris Pueblo people and Pueblo Bonito's ancient inhabitants. Indigenous groups often encounter hurdles when asserting ancestral claims and cultural affiliations based on oral histories, the researchers said. Picuris Pueblo leaders, feeling that their concerns about protecting the canyon were being ignored by the U.S. government, approached the researchers about conducting a DNA study. "Overlooked and erased," is how the tribe felt, according to Craig Quanchello, who was the tribal governor when the research was launched and is now lieutenant governor. "This was something that we could do on our terms," Quanchello said. Chaco Canyon is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a place with significant ancestral meaning for Pueblo communities in the southwestern United States. Located in northwestern New Mexico, its structures were built by people called the Ancestral Puebloans, formerly referred to as the Anasazi. Pueblo Bonito, meaning "beautiful town" in Spanish, is considered among the most important pre-Columbian structures in the United States, though its original function is a matter of debate. It is one of the monumental "great houses" built in Chaco Canyon with sandstone quarried from the canyon's cliffs. The Picuris tribe is centered near the city of Taos, about 170 miles (275 km) west of Chaco Canyon. "A key aim of the research was to assess the genetic relationships between the Picuris community and Ancestral Pueblo populations, specifically those who lived in Chaco Canyon between about 900 and 1200 AD," said Thomaz Pinotti, a postdoctoral researcher in genetics at the University of Copenhagen and the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. "Although traditional knowledge supports such a link, the Picuris community sought genomic affirmation to complement continuing preservation efforts that focus on Chaco Canyon and the vast ancestral Pueblo landscape that it was part of more than 1,000 years ago," Pinotti said. Publication by other scientists in 2017 of the genetic data from ancient human remains at Pueblo Bonito generated controversy due to a lack of advance consultation with Indigenous communities. In the new study, the tribe retained control over the DNA data and the parameters of the work, including the decision to publish the findings. The tribe decided to have the 2017 DNA data included in the study. The study did not look at modern DNA from other Pueblo communities, and the researchers said the findings do not challenge connections that other tribes may have to Chaco Canyon. "Chaco Canyon is a really important and sacred place for a lot of Indigenous groups in the Southwest U.S., including because it's where their ancestors lived. There's already tons of evidence for this: archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and the oral histories passed down by the Indigenous communities themselves," said archaeologist and study co-author Mike Adler, anthropology department chair at Southern Methodist University in Texas. "But despite all that, some scholars have still questioned the connection, which has made it harder for Indigenous groups to have a say in decisions about preserving Chaco Canyon," Adler said. Quanchello noted that the Picuris, a federally recognized tribe, are small in number. "We've been telling our stories for as long as time immemorial. We've had an archaeologist, we've had findings, we've had artifacts in telling our story for us," Quanchello said. But DNA, Quanchello added, offers very powerful evidence. "We steered this ship in the hopes that using technology in the Western way - that they would now listen. This is something that we've always known - who we are. Our elders (have) always known we've been here, and (we) come to find out that everything we felt and knew (was) just validated," Quanchello said.
Reuters
30-04-2025
- Science
- Reuters
DNA links modern Picuris Pueblo tribe to ancient New Mexico site
WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - DNA obtained from the remains of people who inhabited Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a millennium ago is helping to link present-day members of a Pueblo tribe to this historic site known for its distinctive architecture and sacred meaning to Indigenous peoples. Researchers examined data on ancient DNA previously obtained from human remains at Pueblo Bonito, along with DNA newly obtained from 13 present-day members of the Picuris Pueblo tribe and from tooth and bone remains excavated in the 1960s of 16 people who lived at the tribe's home site 500 to 1,500 years ago. They found a close genetic connection between present-day Picuris Pueblo people and Pueblo Bonito's ancient inhabitants. Indigenous groups often encounter hurdles when asserting ancestral claims and cultural affiliations based on oral histories, the researchers said. Picuris Pueblo leaders, feeling that their concerns about protecting the canyon were being ignored by the U.S. government, approached the researchers about conducting a DNA study. "Overlooked and erased," is how the tribe felt, according to Craig Quanchello, who was the tribal governor when the research was launched and is now lieutenant governor. "This was something that we could do on our terms," Quanchello said. Chaco Canyon is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a place with significant ancestral meaning for Pueblo communities in the southwestern United States. Located in northwestern New Mexico, its structures were built by people called the Ancestral Puebloans, formerly referred to as the Anasazi. Pueblo Bonito, meaning "beautiful town" in Spanish, is considered among the most important pre-Columbian structures in the United States, though its original function is a matter of debate. It is one of the monumental "great houses" built in Chaco Canyon with sandstone quarried from the canyon's cliffs. The Picuris tribe is centered near the city of Taos, about 170 miles (275 km) west of Chaco Canyon. "A key aim of the research was to assess the genetic relationships between the Picuris community and Ancestral Pueblo populations, specifically those who lived in Chaco Canyon between about 900 and 1200 AD," said Thomaz Pinotti, a postdoctoral researcher in genetics at the University of Copenhagen and the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, opens new tab. "Although traditional knowledge supports such a link, the Picuris community sought genomic affirmation to complement continuing preservation efforts that focus on Chaco Canyon and the vast ancestral Pueblo landscape that it was part of more than 1,000 years ago," Pinotti said. Publication by other scientists in 2017 of the genetic data from ancient human remains at Pueblo Bonito generated controversy due to a lack of advance consultation with Indigenous communities. In the new study, the tribe retained control over the DNA data and the parameters of the work, including the decision to publish the findings. The tribe decided to have the 2017 DNA data included in the study. The study did not look at modern DNA from other Pueblo communities, and the researchers said the findings do not challenge connections that other tribes may have to Chaco Canyon. "Chaco Canyon is a really important and sacred place for a lot of Indigenous groups in the Southwest U.S., including because it's where their ancestors lived. There's already tons of evidence for this: archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and the oral histories passed down by the Indigenous communities themselves," said archaeologist and study co-author Mike Adler, anthropology department chair at Southern Methodist University in Texas. "But despite all that, some scholars have still questioned the connection, which has made it harder for Indigenous groups to have a say in decisions about preserving Chaco Canyon," Adler said. Quanchello noted that the Picuris, a federally recognized tribe, are small in number. "We've been telling our stories for as long as time immemorial. We've had an archaeologist, we've had findings, we've had artifacts in telling our story for us," Quanchello said. But DNA, Quanchello added, offers very powerful evidence. "We steered this ship in the hopes that using technology in the Western way - that they would now listen. This is something that we've always known - who we are. Our elders (have) always known we've been here, and (we) come to find out that everything we felt and knew (was) just validated," Quanchello said.
CNA
30-04-2025
- Science
- CNA
DNA links modern Picuris Pueblo tribe to ancient New Mexico site
WASHINGTON :DNA obtained from the remains of people who inhabited Pueblo Bonito in New Mexico's Chaco Canyon a millennium ago is helping to link present-day members of a Pueblo tribe to this historic site known for its distinctive architecture and sacred meaning to Indigenous peoples. Researchers examined data on ancient DNA previously obtained from human remains at Pueblo Bonito, along with DNA newly obtained from 13 present-day members of the Picuris Pueblo tribe and from tooth and bone remains excavated in the 1960s of 16 people who lived at the tribe's home site 500 to 1,500 years ago. They found a close genetic connection between present-day Picuris Pueblo people and Pueblo Bonito's ancient inhabitants. Indigenous groups often encounter hurdles when asserting ancestral claims and cultural affiliations based on oral histories, the researchers said. Picuris Pueblo leaders, feeling that their concerns about protecting the canyon were being ignored by the U.S. government, approached the researchers about conducting a DNA study. "Overlooked and erased," is how the tribe felt, according to Craig Quanchello, who was the tribal governor when the research was launched and is now lieutenant governor. "This was something that we could do on our terms," Quanchello said. Chaco Canyon is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a place with significant ancestral meaning for Pueblo communities in the southwestern United States. Located in northwestern New Mexico, its structures were built by people called the Ancestral Puebloans, formerly referred to as the Anasazi. Pueblo Bonito, meaning "beautiful town" in Spanish, is considered among the most important pre-Columbian structures in the United States, though its original function is a matter of debate. It is one of the monumental "great houses" built in Chaco Canyon with sandstone quarried from the canyon's cliffs. The Picuris tribe is centered near the city of Taos, about 170 miles (275 km) west of Chaco Canyon. "A key aim of the research was to assess the genetic relationships between the Picuris community and Ancestral Pueblo populations, specifically those who lived in Chaco Canyon between about 900 and 1200 AD," said Thomaz Pinotti, a postdoctoral researcher in genetics at the University of Copenhagen and the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. "Although traditional knowledge supports such a link, the Picuris community sought genomic affirmation to complement continuing preservation efforts that focus on Chaco Canyon and the vast ancestral Pueblo landscape that it was part of more than 1,000 years ago," Pinotti said. Publication by other scientists in 2017 of the genetic data from ancient human remains at Pueblo Bonito generated controversy due to a lack of advance consultation with Indigenous communities. In the new study, the tribe retained control over the DNA data and the parameters of the work, including the decision to publish the findings. The tribe decided to have the 2017 DNA data included in the study. The study did not look at modern DNA from other Pueblo communities, and the researchers said the findings do not challenge connections that other tribes may have to Chaco Canyon. "Chaco Canyon is a really important and sacred place for a lot of Indigenous groups in the Southwest U.S., including because it's where their ancestors lived. There's already tons of evidence for this: archaeology, anthropology, ethnography and the oral histories passed down by the Indigenous communities themselves," said archaeologist and study co-author Mike Adler, anthropology department chair at Southern Methodist University in Texas. "But despite all that, some scholars have still questioned the connection, which has made it harder for Indigenous groups to have a say in decisions about preserving Chaco Canyon," Adler said. Quanchello noted that the Picuris, a federally recognized tribe, are small in number. "We've been telling our stories for as long as time immemorial. We've had an archaeologist, we've had findings, we've had artifacts in telling our story for us," Quanchello said. But DNA, Quanchello added, offers very powerful evidence. "We steered this ship in the hopes that using technology in the Western way - that they would now listen. This is something that we've always known - who we are. Our elders (have) always known we've been here, and (we) come to find out that everything we felt and knew (was) just validated," Quanchello said.
The Guardian
19-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
‘This is your mission': why one Brazilian doctor is training to be a shaman
Adana Omágua Kambeba was still a little girl when adults started coming to her for advice, asking how to deal with their problems. She liked to speak to plants and to smoke, puzzling the elders. No one had taught her that – it came naturally. When she reached adulthood, her grandmother told her that of all her grandchildren, Adana had inherited a place in the lineage of healers and shamans of the Kambeba group, also known as Omágua, 'the people of the water', which has communities in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon. 'She saw strong signs in me. These signs have always led me to believe I didn't choose medicine, I was chosen by it,' says Adana. Her father was not impressed. Being a doctor was incompatible with their reality in an impoverished rural settlement, with houses on stilts by a stream on the outskirts of Manaus, the capital of Brazil's Amazonas state. 'He told me medicine was for those who have money, not humble people like us,' she recalls. 'But I had some kind of decisive faith when I was a girl, a certainty of myself. When people told me something wouldn't work out, I did it anyway.' Her determination led her to pursue an exceptional life mission: to become both a medical doctor and a shaman, integrating these very separate systems of knowledge and mediating disputes that often arise in Indigenous healthcare. Danielle Soprano Pereira, as she was baptised in Portuguese, is part of a generation of Indigenous people who have gradually had more access to universities thanks to affirmative action policies in Brazil. In 2012, a place at university took her 4,000km (2,500 miles) from home and made her a resident in a city of 2.3 million – Belo Horizonte. At the prestigious Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), she was no longer seen as gifted but as 'different' – the first Indigenous person from the Amazon to gain a coveted place at the medical school, mainly the preserve of Brazil's elite. 'I learned first-hand that prejudice can be covert. It can come with a smile,' says Adana. Students would ask how she got into university. Or would react with surprise when she excelled in an oral exam. A handful of colleagues welcomed her. 'But most people felt bothered by my presence. It was very uncomfortable, at times cruel,' she says. Adana also suffered from clashing notions of time and productivity. The standard duration of the medical course was six years, but she decided to respect her personal rhythm. 'The medical course leaves no time for sleep, leisure or to live one's own humanity. This goes against what we learn with nature, which is to respect our limits,' she says. In 2017, she almost had a breakdown. At home, alone, she questioned aloud how she would become a doctor and a shaman. She heard a voice and spoke to it. She said she would only keep going if certain situations arose. The next day in the hospital, Adana says all the conditions she had set happened, one after the other. She cried in the hallway. 'Something inside me said, 'This is your mission. Never doubt it.'' Covid-19 interrupted Adana's studies and she joined emergency workers in Belo Horizonte and Manaus, amid a critical shortage of staff and supplies. She finally graduated in March 2022. Prof Humberto José Alves, the first black director of UFMG's Faculty of Medicine, handed her the diploma in a room hung with portraits of the faculty's former directors, all white men. 'It was a historic moment. Those directors would never have imagined a black man in their seat, nor an Indigenous woman graduating there,' she says. Until recently, Adana worked as a doctor at a maternity hospital and a dengue emergency centre in Belo Horizonte. She has left both roles. In April, she will embark on a journey along the Amazon River, visiting more than 30 Kambeba communities. She intends to provide medical care to those in need and run workshops on healthcare issues such as suicide prevention and child sexual abuse. At the same time, Adana will undergo shamanic trials to become a pajé, a spiritual leader and healer in Indigenous cultures. She will perform rituals and prayers in front of the Kambeba people and shamans using ayahuasca, a plant-based infusion with hallucinogenic properties traditionally used to connect to the spiritual world and explore the depths of one's soul. 'Experiencing revelations under the influence of ayahuasca is profoundly powerful, and there I will prove if I am worthy or not,' says Adana. Sign up to Global Dispatch Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development team after newsletter promotion In the meantime, she has been speaking in forums, schools and conferences as a doctor, Indigenous activist and educator, seeking to gather funds for her expedition and spread her message on building bridges between western and Indigenous medicines. In August, she spoke at a conference on innovation and technology in Rio de Janeiro to entrepreneurs, students and executives. On stage, wearing a long blue skirt, blue bead ornaments and waist-length feather earrings, Adana made a presentation comparing traditional Indigenous medicines with 'official scientific medicine'. Adana denounced the colonialism inherent in a recent wave of scientific and pharmaceutical interest in traditional psychedelics such as ayahuasca. She also demanded Indigenous groups be heard over the exploitation of their ancestral knowledge. 'Indigenous people are not invited to the conversation, and nature is seen as if it were here to serve us. It is not,' she told the audience. Adana is also a musician (she plays the violin) and actor who starred in the Brazilian film Xingu. So she felt comfortable finishing her presentation by singing an a cappella ode to Mother Nature while shaking rattles made of seeds. The crowd burst into applause. In 1999, Brazil created within its public healthcare system a specific subsystem for Indigenous people, devising an intercultural approach to respect their beliefs and employ Indigenous people as healthcare workers. According to the doctor and anthropologist Luiza Garnelo, however, these ideals are not easily translated into everyday practice, as she has found during her research with Amazonian communities around the Rio Negro. 'Most Indigenous professionals in the subsystem are community healthcare agents and nurse technicians, lower in the pyramid when compared to doctors. And being Indigenous doesn't necessarily give them the right to create new ways of providing care,' says Garnelo, a researcher with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. For a doctor striving to become a pajé, Garnelo says it is difficult to reconcile the principles of scientific biomedicine – strictly based on symptoms, examinations, diagnostics and medications – with Indigenous medicinal practices, in which body, mind, soul and context are seen in confluence. This is often an issue when Indigenous people seek treatment, as healthcare providers may show disregard for Indigenous beliefs. In turn, Indigenous people at times avoid hospitals or reject medical intervention, preferring to trust their shamans and healers. Adana recalls a case around the Rio Negro where a Tukano Indigenous man was bitten by a snake and doctors said his leg would have to be amputated. His family abandoned the hospital and treated the wound with sap from a vine. His leg was saved. Recently, she mediated a standoff in the intensive care unit of the Sofia Feldman hospital in Belo Horizonte. An Indigenous child had presumed sepsis and needed urgent medical intervention but his father, a shaman, opposed the doctors' recommendation. Adana stepped in and promised to say an Indigenous prayer in the intensive care unit. The family allowed the treatment. 'The family listened to me because I am Indigenous preparing to be pajé. The doctors listened to me because I am a doctor,' she says. The father later said that Adana's prayer had saved the child. 'The doctors said it was the antibiotic,' she laughs. 'What matters is that we managed to save a life.' Adana continues to consult the two shamans mentoring her on the pathway towards becoming a spiritual leader. If she succeeds in becoming a pajé, she plans to invite both her worlds to the festivities – celebrating with doctors and shamans.
