RESEARCH INITIATIVES
Each of the SPHERE projects addresses a knowledge gap that would allow use of the tools of precision health to reduce health disparities based on race and ethnicity.
Our Goal
Through the three SPHERE research partnerships we will develop broad experience with “translation” of genetic and biologic information within different racial and ethnic populations to optimize the application of precision health approaches to reduce ethnic and racial disparities where such approaches are most relevant.
Our Strategies
Each of the three projects of SPHERE has developed unique strategies to reduce health disparities in their population of focus. The SPHERE projects include:
BRAICELET: Bio-Repository for American Indian Capacity, Education, Law, Economics and Technology aims to reduce the myriad of health disparities in American Indian populations by forming a Lakota Health Community Advisory Board, establishing a Lakota Biobank infrastructure, and promoting health science literacy and education on genetics and precision medicine.
iPOP: Integrative Personalized Omics Profiling (iPOP) for Obesity and Diabetes Risk in Latino Youth aims to reduce health disparities by developing and applying ‘omics technologies to more effectively prevent and treat excess weight gain and diabetes risk among Latino children participating in a community based intervention.
Communicating Cancer Genetics: Communicating Cancer Genetics Information – Differential Response of Latino and Chinese Families to Information on Cancer Genetics. This study aims to fill an important knowledge gap about how ethnic minorities utilize and if they benefit from cancer genetic risk information and related recommendations.
