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Patricia Ortiz-Tello
Genetics
Bio-X Graduate Student Fellow 2011/2012
Professor Carlos D. Bustamante (Genetics)
Preeclampsia, a disorder that complicates 3-8% of pregnancies worldwide, occurs at 2-3 fold higher prevalence at higher altitudes – most likely due to the hypoxic environment. Interestingly, the prevalence remains low in populations that are indigenous to high altitude. The Bustamante lab hypothesizes that populations that have adapted to living in a hypoxic environment have acquired adaptations that may confer protection against preeclampsia. Such adapta-tions may have imprinted a molecular signature in the genome, which they can recognize by looking at the genomic patterns of the population. They aim to disentangle the underlying genetic mechanism of this clinical consequence of human evolution. |
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