January 19, 2017

 

Genetic Ancestry Matters in Precision Medicine

Register to watch on demand (57 minutes)

In this webinar, Esteban Burchard, MD, MPH, addressed the question of why some racial/ethnic communities have higher rates of disease and how they may respond differently to certain treatments. He also discussed the work his lab is doing in identifying the risk factors that predispose these communities to certain conditions and exploring how these new discoveries can lead to improved treatment.

More about the speaker

Esteban González Burchard, MD, MPH, is a physician-scientist with formal training and expertise in pulmonary medicine, epidemiology, molecular genetics, and genetic and clinical research. He has led a large research program focusing on minority children and gene-environment interactions since 2001.

Dr. Burchard serves as an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. Congress on gene-environment interactions. Dr. Burchard has expertise in the field of precision medicine and served on the Expert Panel for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative.

He initiated and now directs four independent asthma studies in minority children. His team is taking a comprehensive approach to studying asthma and related phenotypes in minority children by focusing on genetic, social and environmental risk factors with the goal of creating innovative therapies and identifying targets for public health inventions.