Massive underrepresentation of Arabs in genomic studies of common disease.

Romit BhattacharyaNingNing ChenInjeong ShimHiroyuki KuwaharaXin GaoFowzan S AlkurayaAkl C Fahed

Published in: Genome medicine (2023)

Arabs represent 5% of the world population and have a high prevalence of common disease, yet remain greatly underrepresented in genome-wide association studies, where only 1 in 600 individuals are Arab. We highlight the persistent and unaddressed underrepresentation of Arabs in genomic databases and discuss its impact on public health genomics and missed opportunities for biological discovery.

Keyphrases

public health
genome wide association
copy number
small molecule
case control
high throughput
gene expression
machine learning
artificial intelligence
dna methylation
global health
genome wide