INCREASING DIVERSITY IN IMMUNOGENOMICS

Limiting immunogenomics studies to people of European ancestry restricts the ability to identify variations in human adaptive immune responses across populations. Thus, expanding the diversity of those studied is vital to advancing the frontiers of human immunology, according to USC-led commentary in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Methods.

School of Pharmacy scientists united researchers from 17 regions and countries to promote inclusivity in immunology studies. The eclectic group— with expertise in biomedical and translational research, population and public health genetics, health disparities, computational biology and immunogenomics—has also formed an international network to implement actions discussed in the commentary.

“We need to engage and study diverse populations—this is how we can understand the immune system and deliver effective therapies,” says co-author Serghei Mangul, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy. “Current databases are ill-equipped to serve non-European populations and thus we should move the research to diverse populations. Without doing that we cannot serve underrepresented racial and ethnic groups.”

For example, more than three-quarters of individuals included in genomewide association studies reported through January 2019 were of European descent, despite the fact that Asian populations account for 59.5% of the world’s population. Even when data from underrepresented groups is available, researchers tend to exclude data from minority groups when conducting statistical analyses due to concerns about statistical significance.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the diversity of immune response around the globe. Scientists have immediate opportunities to investigate the role of genetic factors in vaccine-mediated immune responses.

“For the data to be meaningful, it needs to come from all representative populations,” adds co-author Houda Alachkar, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy. “This is absolutely crucial for the implementation of research findings and the development of therapeutic approaches that are generalizable to all patients.”