Neil Hanchard, Ph.D. of Baylor University will discuss work undertaken on behalf of Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa), a consortium launched in 2013 to remedy the underrepresentation of that continent in genetics research. He and his colleagues sequenced the genomes of 426 people from 13 African countries and 50 ethnolinguistic groups from across the continent, producing an unprecedented, in-depth cataloging of the genetic diversity of people across the African continent.The work proposes to gain insights to the genetics underpinning disease progression in childhood HIV, which, unlike its adult counterpart, hasn’t been extensively studied at the genomic level. Failing to study African genomes can hinder the use of genetic medicine in people of African descent. 

Dr Hanchard's laboratory is using genomics to better understand complex pediatric disease traits, particularly in global health diseases. This interest is best exemplified by severe childhood malnutrition (SCM), a major global health problem that contributes to more than two million childhood deaths worldwide each year. SCM occurs in two clinically distinct forms - the more lethal edematous SCM (ESCM), and the milder non-edematous SCM (NESCM). Despite years of study, the reasons why some children get ESCM while others get NESCM remain unclear.