Newswise — A landmark study led by the Latin American Genomics Consortium (LAGC), a pioneering collaborative network co-founded and co-led by Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, reveals a significant disparity in psychiatric genomics research, with over 85% of participants in genome-wide association studies being of European ancestry.
This imbalance severely limits our understanding of how genetic factors influence mental health conditions across diverse populations, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean—regions characterized by unique genetic admixtures and distinct environmental factors.
The research was published in Nature Genetics, and Montalvo-Ortiz is senior author. It emphasizes that this lack of genetic diversity not only hinders scientific…