Genetic and
sociocultural risk factors for hypertension in African-Americans. Genetic (candidate genes and ancestry
informative markers), biological (stress biomarkers), and sociocultural
(measures of race, SES, etc) data are analyzed in order to
simultaneously test for the contribution of genetic and environmental
factors to risk of hypertension. Different methods to measure 'race'
are specifically included in order to investigate ideas of identity and
implications for human health. Close collaboration with the
African-American community in Tallahassee, FL (http://healthequity.us/)
is a key component of the study. Graduate student Tamar Carter is
analyzing both genetic and sociocultural data in order to more fully
understand how to study complex diseases with racial disparities.
Collaboration with Lance Gravlee (University of Florida). This work is
supported by NSF grant BCS-0820687, entitled "Genetic ancestry, race
and health disparities: A biocultural approach").