Genome Research Into African-American Scleroderma Patients

In this video from the Scleroderma Research Foundation, Dr. Fred Wigley and Dr. Dan Kastner discuss a research program that’s studying African-American scleroderma patients to establish if there is a genetic disposition for the disease.

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The doctors explain that African-American scleroderma patients tend to have a much worse prognosis than other patient populations and tend to present symptoms of the disease at any earlier age. Studying the families of those affected by the disease may lead researchers to the genes that are responsible, which would help with future diagnoses and treatment options for all populations with scleroderma.

The Genome Research in African-American Scleroderma Patients (GRASP) initiative is funded by the Scleroderma Research Foundation in partnership with researchers from the NIH, John Hopkins University and the University of California in San Francisco.

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