New study to research genes from Bradford’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities

Wednesday, 3 April 2019 07:00

A new study will analyse the genes of more than 20,000 people from Bradford’s Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.

The research gets under way this week and will try to unravel the genetic reasons why some people develop heart disease and diabetes, as well as lead to changes to the ways in which South Asian people are prescribed treatments.

Researchers from the landmark Born in Bradford (BiB) project, based at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which is currently tracking the health of 13,500 children from before birth into adulthood, will begin recruiting participants to the study, following the successful East London Genes & Health study where over 36,000 British-Bangladeshi and British-Pakistani volunteers are already taking part.

Professor John Wright, Director of the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR), leading the studies, said: “This new study will tell us how genes work to keep us healthier and the hope is that this knowledge will help scientists develop new medicines for our south Asian communities as traditionally the majority of treatments which we use have only been tested on mainly white European people.

“What we find, in the medical profession sometimes, is that medicines successful in treating the white European community, don’t work for the south Asian population.

“We also want to examine genes in people with very high and very low cholesterol levels to understand why heart disease and stroke occurs. The study will also concentrate on the genes of people with diabetes, aiming to identify rarer types of diabetes for which more specific treatments can be used.

“By studying normal variations in genes in adult Bangladeshi and Pakistani people we’ll also be able to identify what is normal, as this is vital when searching for genes which cause inherited childhood diseases.”

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