NIMHD Adjunct Investigator Program

National Institute On Minority Health And Health Disparities

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

For FY21, we had 9 adjunct appointments. The investigators are described briefly below. Stefan Ambs, NCI Dr. Stefan Ambss FY21 funding was deferred to FY 22 due to COVID 19 pandemic. Fasil Tekola-Ayele, NICHD Dr. Tekola-Ayeles research focuses on two themes at the maternal-placental-fetal interface genetics of fetal growth and placental epigenome/transcriptome. Projects on the first theme yielded the following key insights: elucidated that fetal genetic influences on fetal growth differ based on gestational age (PMC5940684) and ancestry (PMC5967042); and built evidence that genetic mechanisms partly explain the links between maternal cardiometabolic risk, fetal growth, and future risk for cardiometabolic diseases (PMC6411883, PMC6449964, PMC6753636, PMC6592626, PMC6885118, PMC6224338, PMC7794220). Findings related to the second theme include: (1) demonstrated that epigenetic aging of the placenta has significant associations with maternal cardiometabolic factors and genetic ancestry (PMC6691987), and a study of genetic and environmental influences on placental DNA methylation variation revealed that gene-environment interactions account for more than 80% placental variable DNA methylation, and led to a new resource of Variable Methylation Region for placenta (PMID: 34155504). Michele Evans, NIA Over the last fiscal year, post-doctoral fellow Dr. Natasha Pacheco was supported by NIMHD funding. She has worked on a follow-up study on frailty in the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span Study (HANDLS) to identify biologic pathways underlying frailty development in middle-aged adults. Dr. Pacheco investigated whether there were sex-specific transcriptome-wide differences in frailty-associated genes. In this study, we sought to identify novel genes and pathways associated with sex and frailty in a diverse middle-aged cohort using RNA-Sequencing. Her work has found novel and significant differential gene expression by sex. The manuscript entitled Sex-specific transcriptome differences in a middle-aged frailty cohort will be submitted in September. Pravitt Gourh, NIAMS The goal is to study scleroderma (systemic sclerosis, SSc) in the African American (AA) population, (i) to identify genes that increase SSc susceptibility, and (ii) to understand the basic mechanisms by which these genes cause SSc. We have established a large multi-center collaboration designated as GRASP (Genome Research in African American Scleroderma Patients), comprising of 25 centers outside of the NIH and have enrolled the largest cohort of AA SSc patients. Genome wide association study and exome sequencing have led to identification of HLA and non-HLA genes increasing SSc susceptibility in the AA population. . We conducted a retrospective study of Latino patients with rheumatic diseases from an existing observational cohort at NIH to characterize COVID-19 clinical features and outcomes in Latino patients with rheumatic diseases. Our results indicated that Latino patients with rheumatic diseases had a 3-fold higher rate of COVID-19 compared with the general Latino population. Obesity was identified as a risk factor for COVID-19, and COVID-19 was found to be a risk factor for rheumatic disease flare. Chandra Jackson, NIEHS The overarching objective of her research group, the Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Equity Research Group, is to investigate how the physical and social environments impact racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in cardiometabolic health, with a particular interest in the influence of sleep health. Since October of 2020, her research group has had 17 original reports published or accepted for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals. For example, one of the studies investigated the association between multiple sleep dimensions and chronic kidney disease using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. while another investigated the association between traumatic childhood experiences and suboptimal sleep dimensions among racially/ethnically diverse adult women. Another publication investigated the relationship between neighborhood social cohesion and sleep health among a large sample of US adults. Tiffany Powell Wiley, NHLBI The Powell-Wiley laboratory has explored relationships between neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) and the microbial metabolite, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO), given that the connection between neighborhood environment and the microbiome in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk has not been fully explored. We have identified methods for incorporating digital health technology into interventions addressing behaviors associated with cardiovascular health in a resource-limited neighborhood environment. We have been working in an iterative process to implement Step It Up, a digital health intervention targeting African American women living in resource-limited Washington, DC communities which was developed based on the socioecological framework for physical activity. In another project we will objectively measure physical activity, sedentary behavior, and neighborhood stress using accelerometers, GPS, and real-time perceived ecological momentary assessment via smartphone apps and to link these to biological measures in a sample of White and African American women in Washington, DC, neighborhoods. Brid Ryan, NCI Dr. Ryan is no longer at NIH. Anne E. Sumner, MD, NIDDK Dr. Sumner work has been dedicated to (a) improving detection and prevention of diabetes and its complications in people of African descent; (b) identifying the social determinants of diabetes and heart disease and (c) training African physicians as well as under-represented minorities to be clinical investigators. The optimal screening tests for diabetes in Africans are not known-and cannot be extrapolated from other populations. In publications which are paradigm shifting, the Section has shown that A1C performs poorly as a diagnostic test in Africans. Furthermore, diabetes is common in nonobese Africans and if screening paradigms require a high BMI to be screened, many Africans with diabetes will remain undetected and be at risk for preventable but not reversible complications. Alternative diagnostic strategies to A1C are being actively evaluated (4, 6,7). Her work with African immigrants which was led by Rwandan and Ghanaian trainees, has revealed that risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease is modified by reason for immigration, age of immigration and degree of social support. Kyle Messier, NIEHS Dr. Kyle Messiers Spatiotemporal Health Analytics Group has two overarching themes: (1) geospatial exposure, disparity, and risk mapping; and (2) Spatiotemporal mapping connections to toxicology. Examples of on-going studies under theme 1 are: air pollution and gene expression relationships with skin autoimmune using the Personalized Environment and Gene Study (PEGS) cohort; and effects of flood risk, climate change, and social vulnerability on census tract-level cardiovascular outcomes. Examples of on-going studies under theme 2 are: geospatial modeling approach to quantifying the risk of exposure to environmental chemical mixtures via a common molecular initiating event; and toxicokinetic and toxicological-based geospatial risk mapping of gas-phase volatile organic compounds across the United States.