With the release of its first 100,000 genomes, all from volunteers, the All of Us project is on its way to solving one of the most pernicious problems in modern medicine: a startling lack of diversity.
The National Institutes of Health project, which launched in 2018, will eventually gather genetic information and other medical data from one million Americans. Key to the effort is a focus on getting this data from Americans who truly represent the country’s diversity. Up until now, most of the genetic information we have — and most medical information, period — has come from studies of white men. That’s left gaping holes in our knowledge about the human body, with consequences for anyone who’s not a white man.
“Until now, over 90 percent of participants from large genomics studies have been of European descent. The lack of diversity in research has hindered scientific discovery,” said Josh ...
