New Study Uncovers Genetic Ancestry Surprises in Urban Peruvians
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School of Medicine Researchers Say Study Could Lead to More Equitable Medical Research and Precision Treatments
Latin American people are represented in fewer than four percent of genetic epidemiological studies around the world. When they are included, they’re often lumped together as one group, despite the rich diversity among different Latin American populations. This lack of data has impeded genetic discoveries in Latin Americans and has stalled advances in the clinical use of precision medicine.
To better understand the fine-scale ancestry of one specific Latin American population—Peruvians—researchers from the School of Medicine, along with colleagues from the Peru Institute of National Health, undertook the largest study to date to examine the genetic makeup of individuals from urban areas throughout Peru. They published their study in Communication Biology.
“We were surprised to discover that despite historical events—like the slave trade or Spanish colonization—over the past few centuries, urban Peruvians resemble more of ancient Indigenous populations from nearby regions, including the Andes and the Amazon, rather than a single melting-pot population,” said lead author Dr. Victor Borda, research associate at the Institute for Genome Sciences and faculty at the Institute for Health Computing, who is also a native Peruvian.