North Carolina
Genomics News

July 2004

| April 2005 |
| April 2004 | July 2004 | November 2004 |

PARTNER HAPPENINGS

The Fullerton Genetics Center at Mission Hospitals, Inc . in collaboration with the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) will be hosting a full day genetics conference for nurses in the Western North Carolina region. This years conference, which will take place at MAHEC on Thursday, November 4th, will be based on last year's very successful conference called "Genetics for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Practical Implications for Nursing Practice." For further information contact Leslie Evans at cgclee@msj.org, or call 828-213-1092.

PART-TIME POSITION AVAILABLE

An Epidemiology and Surveillance Research Assistant is needed to work 10-20 hours per week from August 2004 –June 2005 with the Office of Genomics to complete the following tasks:

This is an excellent opportunity for a graduate student to gain valuable work experience in the field of Genomics and Public Health. Contact Donna Spoon at 919-715-3154 for additional information. This is a paid position. Please distribute this posting to others in your organization that might be interested.

RECENT PARTNER PUBLICATIONS

The following abstract summarizes a paper to be presented at the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) 2004 Annual Meeting in September by Dr. Carol Dukes Hamilton and research colleagues from Duke University Medical Center, NC DPH, and SC DPH.
Genetic Susceptibility to Pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB): Interim Analysis of Study Population Characteristics Compared to Pulmonary TB in North South Carolina, CAROL D. HAMILTON et al.
Background: TB rates differ by socioeconomic status, gender, race, population exposure over time, and co-morbidities. In North America, ~10% of healthy adults with latent TB develop active TB. Studies suggest that certain gene alleles or combinations may render individuals more or less susceptible to progression to disease. We are recruiting patients into a family-based association study to evaluate candidate genes for TB susceptibility. We present an interim analysis comparing study population characteristics to pulmonary TB patients in our states.
Methods: Adults (>14 years) with culture-confirmed pulmonary TB and children (< or =14 years) with culture- or clinically-confirmed TB are being enrolled. Family members and spousal controls are also recruited. Multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms will be genotyped in candidate genes and analyzed using family-based tests of association. North & South Carolina's TIMS databases were queried for adult and pediatric pulmonary TB cases diagnosed while alive, between 1993-2003.
Results: We have collected DNA & clinical data from 252 participants (including 109 subjects with TB) since our first patient was enrolled in April 2002. We compared study cases to comparable TB cases in North & South Carolina between 1993-2003 (adults=7179, pediatric=425).
Conclusion: Adult study subjects have similar demographics, HIV seropositivity and severity of illness (sputum smear-positive) compared to adult TB patients in our catchment area, suggesting that results of the study will be generalizable to the adult TB populations in these states. The number of pediatric study subjects is still too few to accurately compare. Hispanic subject recruitment should increase with a recently hired Spanish-speaking interviewer and approved Spanish-language consent forms.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

The next NC Task Force on Genomics and Public Health meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 29, from 12:00-3:00pm at the NC Biotechnology Center, RTP. Work Groups will meet in the morning beginning at 10:00am.