MAAAI

Howard University, Washington DC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Crohn s disease and ulcerative colitis, is a complex genetic disorder with both genetic and environmental causes. The distribution of disease genes varies by ethnic ancestry. We have developed the largest cohort of African American (AA)IBD cases and ethnically matched controls. We have also analyzed the phenotype of IBD in the AA population and determined that the phenotype pattern is significantly different from that of IBD in the white population. We now propose to enlarge the AA cohort to 800 cases and matched controls by year 5. We will perform a whole genome association study in Year4, to identify IBD genes. We well also recruit an AA IBD replication population to confirm genetic findings from the GWA studies. We will use the larger population to determine the significance of unique African ancestral NOD2 variants, further reduce the IBD5 haplotype, determine the cause of IBD3 linkage and reduce its haplotype and test for association and identify unique African ancestral variants for any candidate genes identified in the white by our NIDDK consortium collaborators. Howard University is one of the sites to perform this study.