History:
The Human Genetics Center was established as a unit within the School of Public Health on September 1, 1994. It represents the consolidation of two long-standing research Centers that had been joint enterprises of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and the School of Public Health. These two Centers, known as the Center for Demographic and Population Genetics and the Medical Genetics Center, were established in 1971. The consolidated Center has been designated by the World Health Organization as a collaborating center for the investigation of the genetics of common disease.
At present, funded research projects focus on common diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and eye disorders. All have been shown to have a strong genetic component, but the number of genes involved their locations, risk-producing mutations, and interactions are yet to be resolved.
Center faculty are actively involved in research ranging from completely scanning the human genome for diabetes and hypertension genes to characterizing specific mutations for eye disorders to establishing the evolutionary dynamics of genetic variation in disease genes. The Center is also involved in the assessment of the forensic utility of DNA testing, the establishment of a national DNA testing database for use in research, and the conduct in association with the Department of Ophthalmology, of a laboratory for the molecular diagnosis of inherited eye diseases. In addition to national and international efforts, the Center has maintained a field station in Rio Grande City, Texas since February 1981 to facilitate investigation of common disease problems among the Mexican-American population of Texas.
Funding of the Center’s research comes almost exclusively from external sources including the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Justice, the Foundation for Fighting Blindness, and the American Diabetes Association.
