Applying Genomics to Unravel Health Disparities in Organ Transplantation: Paul I. Terasaki State-of-the-art Lecture; American Transplant Congress 2021

Abstract

An extensive body of research about team science provides empirical evidence that diverse teams outperform homogenous teams in creating more innovative solutions to complex problems. At the core of diverse and inclusive teams is a rich diversity of perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds that invite new questions and broaden the scope of research. Diverse perspectives are especially relevant for biomedicine, which seeks to find solutions for challenging problems affecting the human condition. It is essential that diversity and inclusion in biomedicine is prioritized as a key driver of innovation, both through the people who conduct the research and the science itself. Key questions have been articulated as important drivers for funding research: (1) Who is doing the science and who is building the tools? (2) What science and technology is being done and how? and (3) Who has access to the knowledge and benefits of scientific innovation? I will briefly review the empirical evidence supporting diversity as a powerful enhancer of the quality and outputs of research and clinical care. I offer my own research as a case study of incorporating a framework of diversity, equity, and inclusion into research that uses new emerging genomic tools for earlier and more precise diagnosis of organ transplant rejection. I will demonstrate how these same tools hold great promise for accelerating the discovery of hitherto unexplored mechanisms that drive the poor outcomes for African ancestry organ transplant recipients, which in turn will identify new diagnostics and therapeutic targets that benefit transplant recipients across all ancestries.