Center for Genetic Epidemiology

The development of techniques which make it possible to sequence human genes has fundamentally changed the study of biology and medicine. For most common diseases, however, the effects of sequence variation are very likely to be subtle and complex. It becomes necessary, therefore, to study the influence of genetic factors on these conditions in the context of natural populations, using epidemiology to take account of environmental factors.

In 1998, as an extension of our epidemiology program, the Department organized this Center to promote research on cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes using molecular approaches. Activities of the Center involve the organization and conduct of large population surveys. Case-control studies and a variety of family-based designs are being used. An important focus of this work is the examination of gene-environment interactions that have become apparent across the African diaspora. Samples from the surveys have been used in candidate gene studies of hypertension, genetic linkage and association mapping of blood pressure, adult height, body mass index, resting energy expenditure, etc.

Ongoing projects in the Center include Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) of hypertension and anthropometric traits in African and African-derived populations. Another ongoing project is the Whole Exome Sequencing (WES) of hypertension cases and controls from the extremes of the distribution in our African-origin samples.

A few of the recent publications involving efforts by the Center include:

• Zhu X, Young JH, Fox E, Keating BJ, Franceschini N, Kang S, Tayo B, et al. Combined admixture mapping and association analysis identifies a novel blood pressure genetic locus on 5p13: contributions from the CARe consortium. Human molecular genetics. 2011;20(11):2285-95. PMCID: 3090198.
• Tayo BO, Teil M, Tong L, Qin H, Khitrov G, Zhang W, Song Q, Gottesman O, Zhu X, Pereira AC, Cooper RS, Bottinger EP. Genetic background of patients from a university medical center in Manhattan: implications for personalized medicine. PLoS One. 2011;6(5):e19166. PMCID: 3087725.
• Fox ER, Young JH, Li Y, Dreisbach AW, Keating BJ, Musani SK, Liu K, et al. Association of genetic variation with systolic and diastolic blood pressure among African Americans: the Candidate Gene Association Resource study. Human molecular genetics. 2011;20(11):2273-84. PMCID: 3090190.
• Ehret GB, Munroe PB, Rice KM, Bochud M, Johnson AD, Chasman DI, Smith AV, et al. Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk. Nature. 2011.
• Bhatia G, Patterson N, Pasaniuc B, Zaitlen N, Genovese G, Pollack S, Mallick S, et al. Genome-wide Comparison of African-Ancestry Populations from CARe and Other Cohorts Reveals Signals of Natural Selection. American journal of human genetics. 2011;89(3):368-81.
• Zhang K, Rao F, Wang L, Rana BK, Ghosh S, Mahata M, Salem RM, et al. Common functional genetic variants in catecholamine storage vesicle protein promoter motifs interact to trigger systemic hypertension. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 2010;55(14):1463-75. PMCID: 2889490.
• Qin H, Morris N, Kang SJ, Li M, Tayo B, Lyon H, Hirschhorn J, Cooper RS, Zhu X. Interrogating local population structure for fine mapping in genome-wide association studies. Bioinformatics. 2010;26(23):2961-8. PMCID: 2982153.
• Kang SJ, Chiang CW, Palmer CD, Tayo BO, Lettre G, Butler JL, et al. Genome-wide association of anthropometric traits in African- and African-derived populations. Human molecular genetics. 2010;19(13):2725-38. PMCID: 2883343.
• Hassanein MT, Lyon HN, Nguyen TT, Akylbekova EL, Waters K, Lettre G, Tayo B, et al. Fine mapping of the association with obesity at the FTO locus in African-derived populations. Human molecular genetics. 2010;19(14):2907-16. PMCID: 2893809.
• Gupta R, Ejebe K, Butler J, Lettre G, Lyon H, Guiducci C, Wilks R, et al. Association of common DNA sequence variants at 33 genetic loci with blood lipids in individuals of African ancestry from Jamaica. Human genetics. 2010;128(5):557-61.
• Chen Y, Wen G, Rao F, Zhang K, Wang L, Rodriguez-Flores JL, et al. Human dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) regulatory polymorphism that influences enzymatic activity, autonomic function, and blood pressure. Journal of hypertension. 2010;28(1):76-86. PMCID: 2860271.
• Tayo BO, Luke A, Zhu X, Adeyemo A, Cooper RS. Association of regions on chromosomes 6 and 7 with blood pressure in Nigerian families. Circulation Cardiovascular genetics. 2009;2(1):38-45. PMCID: 2744324.
• Tayo BO, Liang Y, Kelemen A, Miller A, Trevisan M, Cooper RS. Use of supplementary phenotype to identify additional rheumatoid arthritis loci in a linkage analysis of 342 UK affected sibling pair families. BMC medical genetics. 2009;10:142. PMCID: 2803785.
• Tayo BO, DiCioccio RA, Liang Y, Trevisan M, Cooper RS, Lele S, Sucheston L, Piver SM, Odunsi K. Complex segregation analysis of pedigrees from the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry reveals evidence for mendelian dominant inheritance. PLoS One. 2009;4(6):e5939. PMCID: 2694280.

The primary investigator involved in the Center's activities is: Bamidele Tayo, PhD

If you would like additional information about opportunities for collaboration or recent publications, please contact Diane Richardson at our administration office 708-327-9018.

A list of recent publications can be found under the Department home page.