Mega-Analysis Identifies Gene Variants Associated with Glaucoma in People of African Ancestry
A new analysis focusing specifically on people of African ancestry identified three gene variants that may be contributing to this population’s susceptibility to developing and being blinded by glaucoma, according to report from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
People of African ancestry are five times as likely as others to develop glaucoma and up to 15 times as likely to be blinded by the condition, but the vast majority of research has used data from people of European ancestry. Led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the study was published today in Cell.
“Our work is an important step toward defining subgroups of glaucoma, providing the capability for early screening, and discovering targetable pathways for personalized therapeutic interventions,” said study author Rebecca Salowe, MSE, a research project manager in the lab of senior author Joan O’Brien, MD, a professor of Ophthalmology and director of the Penn Center for Genetics of Complex Disease.