The Division of Intramural Research conducts a broad program of laboratory and clinical research
North Asians, including Mongolians and other Siberian ethnic groups, may be more closely related to Eastern and Northern Europeans - including the people of Finland -- than previously thought, according to a new genomics study in Nature Genetics. The international team of researchers, including those from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), made the connection by comparing the whole-genome sequences of 175 ethnic Mongolians to existing genetic variation data.
In the United States, an estimated 2.5 to 3 million people have a gene variant associated sickle cell trait (SCT) and most never have related health complications. Researchers have now identified three health conditions for which people with SCT are at increased risk. They include pulmonary embolism, proteinuria and chronic kidney disease. Findings from this first comprehensive review of clinical outcomes associated with SCT were published in the October 30, 2018, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a new technique that will aid in a more accurate reconstruction of genomes, specifically in determining the sections of the genome that come from each parent. This new technique, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, will allow researchers to identify further complexity within any type of genome - from plants to humans - and provide more precise reference genomes in researcher databases than are currently available.
