Events Calendar

Studying Genetics in Samoa: A‘oa‘oga mai Tagata Nu‘u ‘Ese

This is a past event.

This lecture is part of the 2023 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar series.

Speaker

Ryan L. Minster, PhD, MSIS

Assistant Professor of Human Genetics, School of Public Health

Topic

Studying Genetics in Samoa: A‘oa‘oga mai Tagata Nu‘u ‘Ese

Registration for the lecture is required to receive event instructions.

Topic Overview:

Pacific Islanders, including Samoans, are among the fastest growing ethnic groups within the United States. They have a rich culture with an ancient history of ocean voyaging. However, they are disproportionately burdened by obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Despite these disparities, current research rarely includes them and, when it does, people from this population are often aggregated with individuals of Asian ancestry, despite evidence that their body composition differs and standard risk prediction algorithms underperform. Minster and colleagues hope to address the gap in knowledge about Pacific Islander health and genetics. To this end, they have assembled the largest and most deeply phenotyped and genotyped sample of Polynesians in the world—nearly 5,000 Samoan adults from the Independent State of Samoa and the U.S. territory of American Samoa. They have identified genetic variants among Samoans, subsequently determined to be nearly unique to Pacific Islanders, that have opened new avenues of research into body composition, diabetes risk, energy homeostasis, and lipid metabolism, including a variant in CREBRF with paradoxical relationships to obesity and type 2 diabetes risk. This data set has also enabled the characterization of a low-frequency, Polynesian-specific allele that results in a Leigh syndrome-like disorder and a low-frequency variant that is associated with a rare susceptibility to severe viral disease, with complicated implications for public health communication and practice. These a‘oa‘oga mai tagata nu‘u ‘ese—“lessons from the people of a different village”—remind us of the inherent importance of research in marginalized populations, regardless of benefit to global ethnic majorities. They also challenge us to continually improve our community engagement and attune ourselves to the priorities of our community partners.

Friday, May 12 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Virtual Event

Studying Genetics in Samoa: A‘oa‘oga mai Tagata Nu‘u ‘Ese

This lecture is part of the 2023 Senior Vice Chancellor’s Research Seminar series.

Speaker

Ryan L. Minster, PhD, MSIS

Assistant Professor of Human Genetics, School of Public Health

Topic

Studying Genetics in Samoa: A‘oa‘oga mai Tagata Nu‘u ‘Ese

Registration for the lecture is required to receive event instructions.

Topic Overview:

Pacific Islanders, including Samoans, are among the fastest growing ethnic groups within the United States. They have a rich culture with an ancient history of ocean voyaging. However, they are disproportionately burdened by obesity and cardiometabolic disease. Despite these disparities, current research rarely includes them and, when it does, people from this population are often aggregated with individuals of Asian ancestry, despite evidence that their body composition differs and standard risk prediction algorithms underperform. Minster and colleagues hope to address the gap in knowledge about Pacific Islander health and genetics. To this end, they have assembled the largest and most deeply phenotyped and genotyped sample of Polynesians in the world—nearly 5,000 Samoan adults from the Independent State of Samoa and the U.S. territory of American Samoa. They have identified genetic variants among Samoans, subsequently determined to be nearly unique to Pacific Islanders, that have opened new avenues of research into body composition, diabetes risk, energy homeostasis, and lipid metabolism, including a variant in CREBRF with paradoxical relationships to obesity and type 2 diabetes risk. This data set has also enabled the characterization of a low-frequency, Polynesian-specific allele that results in a Leigh syndrome-like disorder and a low-frequency variant that is associated with a rare susceptibility to severe viral disease, with complicated implications for public health communication and practice. These a‘oa‘oga mai tagata nu‘u ‘ese—“lessons from the people of a different village”—remind us of the inherent importance of research in marginalized populations, regardless of benefit to global ethnic majorities. They also challenge us to continually improve our community engagement and attune ourselves to the priorities of our community partners.

Friday, May 12 at 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Virtual Event

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