Andrew Hodges
Project Personnel, University of California, San Diego
1 active project
HLA Typing
Scientific Questions Being Studied
In this focus, we will investigate impacts of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system, including the series of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins, and their unique behaviors/polymorphisms/etc. across populations. Given that HLA and MHC directly impact infections and organ transplants, an understanding of these systems using NGS and HLA typing allow a better understanding of at-risk individuals for varying immune responses given their underlying genomes. Given disparate patterns of infection for malaria, HIV, and other relevant diseases impacting particular demographics, the additional social determinants of health represented in the AllOfUs portal provide additional dimensions and opportunities for analyzing the HLA impacts and admixture genomics on human disease. This project is part of the CAST effort at UCSD.
Project Purpose(s)
- Disease Focused Research (Immune diseases (infections, automimmunity, etc.))
- Population Health
- Social / Behavioral
- Methods Development
- Ancestry
Scientific Approaches
We expect that the HLA/MHC types will provide new insights and actionable discoveries for immune protection and xenograft/transplant compatibility understanding, such as impacts of admixture genomics on the respective HLA types and resulting immune responses/health outcomes. We are implementing a variety of HLA typing, GWAS, and fine mapping approaches to approach these questions within the AllOfUs Researcher Workbench, and scanning a number of immune-related disorders. Initial starting populations (e.g. filter for race/ethnicity) will be based on sufficient statistical power and including multiple underrepresented groups (and will be further adjusted accordingly for other population categories given available samples etc.).
Anticipated Findings
We expect that the underlying genomics associated with the HLA and MHC types will reveal associations with respective demographics. The additional impacts of admixture genomics on the immune responses and HLA types will be further elucidated, hopefully identifying additional information regarding health disparities and disease burden in the respective demographics along with earlier diagnostics and therapeutic potential.
Demographic Categories of Interest
- Race / Ethnicity
Data Set Used
Controlled Tier
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