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Meet
Dr. Craig L. Hanis by ITV on March 24th.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
School of Public Health
Human Genetics Center
Professor Appointed: 1991
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Research
Interests:
Familial aggregation of chronic disease in Mexican Americans; in particular,
type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications. The common chronic
diseases of man have been resistant to explanation via simple genetic
or environmental models though it is clear that there is a substantial
genetic component. Our efforts are aimed at localizing and identifying
these genes. The research varies in scope. It includes population
studies in Starr County, Texas where a field office is maintained
to collect and characterize individuals and families with regard to
disease both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Once collected,
laboratory efforts are focused on delineating the complete array of
genetic variation in genes and regions. The sequence and SNP data
generated are then analyzed to determine the contribution of this
variation to disease risk and complications. These studies have led
to the mapping and identification of calpain 10 as the first gene
for the common form of type 2 diabetes. Additional genome-wide linkage
efforts are underway to localize other genes for type 2 diabetes and
for diabetic retinopathy. We are also involved in large scale studies
to identify genes for hypertension, obesity and lipid levels. These
studies naturally pose a number of statistical challenges for haplotype
construction, linkage, and association. Thus our research efforts
span the range from field collection to laboratory characterization
to employing and developing statistical tools; all of which are necessary
to identify those genes involved in common disease that have proven
to be quite elusive to discovery.
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