Health Disparities

Racial and ethnic disparities exist in age-related diseases whereby certain populations of people have higher incidences and risk of disease. African Americans are 2-3 times  and Hispanics 1.5-2 times more likely to have Alzheimer’s Disease despite representing the minority of the US population. In other conditions such as community-acquired pneumonia and sepsis, incidence rates are disproportionally higher in African Americans compared to non-Hispanic Whites. While there are many factors that could contribute to these disparities such as socioeconomic factors, comorbidities, lifestyle choices, genetics, and aging, the molecular basis of these disparities has not been fully explored. We are using our suite of proteomics and other ‘omics technologies to understand these disparities in models and human samples.