Informatics in all its different forms has without a doubt risen in popularity over the last five to ten years. Informatics is not exactly new and as a discipline or professional society has been around for several decades, evolving with the increase in the importance of computers. The recent surge in its popularity and cross-disciplinary […]
Do race and age vary in non-malignant central nervous system tumor incidences in the United States?
Epidemiological analyses of many cancers have demonstrated differences in incidence and outcome for patients from different racial backgrounds. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of non-malignant CNS tumors by race and age to identify incidence variance. Data from the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) from 2009 to […]
Do race and age vary in non-malignant central nervous system tumor incidences in the United States?
Epidemiological analyses of many cancers have demonstrated differences in incidence and outcome for patients from different racial backgrounds. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of non-malignant CNS tumors by race and age to identify incidence variance. Data from the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the United States (CBTRUS) from 2009 to […]
Germline Genetic Variants and Lung Cancer Survival in African Americans.
Background: African Americans have the highest lung cancer mortality in the United States. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of germline variants influencing lung cancer survival have not yet been conducted with African Americans. We examined five previously reported GWAS catalog variants and explored additional genome-wide associations among African American lung cancer cases.Methods: Incident non-small cell lung […]
Fine-mapping of lipid regions in global populations discovers ethnic-specific signals and refines previously identified lipid loci.
Genome-wide association studies have identified over 150 loci associated with lipid traits, however, no large-scale studies exist for Hispanics and other minority populations. Additionally, the genetic architecture of lipid-influencing loci remains largely unknown. We performed one of the most racially/ethnically diverse fine-mapping genetic studies of HDL-C, LDL-C, and triglycerides to-date using SNPs on the MetaboChip […]
An update on the Lacks family
Our second annual symposium featured members of the Henrietta Lacks family Shirley Lacks and Veronica (Robinson) Spencer. Ms. Lacks is the sister-in-law of the late Henrietta Lacks, and she was good friends with Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Veronica (Robinson) Spencer is the great-granddaughter of Henrietta Lacks. The Lacks family story has become and continues to be […]
Risk Factors for Subsequent Central Nervous System Tumors in Pediatric Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant: A Study from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR).
Survivors of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) are at risk of subsequent solid tumors, including central nervous system (CNS) tumors. The risk of CNS tumors after HCT in pediatric HCT recipients is not known. We evaluated the incidence and risk factors for CNS tumors in pediatric recipients of allogeneic HCT reported to the Center for International […]
Trans-ethnic fine-mapping of genetic loci for body mass index in the diverse ancestral populations of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study reveals evidence for multiple signals at established loci.
Most body mass index (BMI) genetic loci have been identified in studies of primarily European ancestries. The effect of these loci in other racial/ethnic groups is less clear. Thus, we aimed to characterize the generalizability of 170 established BMI variants, or their proxies, to diverse US populations and trans-ethnically fine-map 36 BMI loci using a […]
Genome-wide association study of glioma subtypes identifies specific differences in genetic susceptibility to glioblastoma and non-glioblastoma tumors.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have transformed our understanding of glioma susceptibility, but individual studies have had limited power to identify risk loci. We performed a meta-analysis of existing GWAS and two new GWAS, which totaled 12,496 cases and 18,190 controls. We identified five new loci for glioblastoma (GBM) at 1p31.3 (rs12752552; P 2.04 10(-9), odds […]
Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2017: the aloha lives on!
It’s the first day of spring, so you know what that means! It means I haven’t posted since winter! Grant, papers, classes…what can I say? I have been very busy, indeed! But, there’s always time for PSB. Always. If you have read my previous posts, you know all about PSB. For the uninitiated, the Pacific […]
Welcome to the Symposium Blog!
We have now organized two symposia focusing on big data and precision medicine topics with a third one in the works focusing on measuring exposures. In an effort to sustain the dialog initiated by each of these events, we are hosting a blog on this website. This blog will feature short opinion pieces and articles […]