New Approaches for Empowering Studies of Asthma in Populations of African Descent

Asthma is a complex disease where the interplay between genetic factors and environmental exposures controls susceptibility and disease progression. In the U.S., there remains an epidemic of asthma that disproportionately affects underrepresented minorities and creates a major public health burden, especially among children. Asthmatics of African ancestry continue to have more severe asthma and more severe clinical symptoms than their non-African counterparts, but few studies have focused on this vulnerable group. The purpose of this study is to expand our previous study, the Consortium on Asthma among African-ancestry Populations in the Americas (CAAPA) to integrate multi-omic resources for asthma research in African Diaspora populations and by recruiting new participants. The protocol described herein refers to the recruitment that will take place at the NIH Clinical Center as part of the expansion of CAAPA (CAAPA2).