‘All of Us’ reports half of the genomes it has sequenced are from non-Europeans
Although people of European descent account for less than one-quarter of the world’s population, their DNA disproportionately drives genetics research.
Six years ago, the National Institutes of Health placed its biggest ever bet on precision medicine, launching a study to enroll over 1 million participants in an ambitious data-gathering gambit unmatched in its scope and diversity. Since then, Americans from all walks of life have been showing up and handing over their blood, spit, and pee to the project, dubbed “All of Us.” From those samples, scientists have recovered a trove of new genetic information — more than 275 million never-before-seen DNA variants.
The data, reported Monday in Nature, aim to address a longstanding lack of diversity in genomic datasets that has led to a narrow understanding of the biology of disease and undermined the promise of precision medicine.
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