Studying genetic heritage could provide clues to needed services
By Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H.
When John Belmont, M.D., Ph.D., started going to Guatemala, he went as a pediatrician seeking to help a population of people who had significant inherited diseases.
What he did not expect was that the work, begun as a charitable effort with a local organization called Faith in Practice, would become relevant in an international effort to identify disease genes associated with various heritages. In a recent study that appeared in the Public Library of Science Genetics, his studies with the Guatemalan Mayan people and southeast Asians provided important references for identifying genetic markers that distinguish the "northern" European population from the "southern."
"You can find diseases genes by comparing groups based on their heritage," said Belmont, a professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine as well as professor of pediatrics.
In his work in Guatemala, Belmont met the country's only medical geneticist, Gabriel Silva, M.D., who has been providing medical care to the Mayan population down there.
"In their country, about 60 percent of people are meztiso (a mixture of Indian and European), but 40 percent are indigenous," said Belmont. "Many don't speak Spanish. They live in Mayan communities."
Silva helped Belmont get samples from two Mayan villages. The leaders in the villages asked that the researchers compensate the villages instead of individuals for taking part in the study. The funds collected were used to improve sewer systems and to put in lights.
"It was a community engagement," said Belmont. "Each time we have used the samples, I've included Gabriel Silva as an author."
Belmont and Richard Gibbs, Ph.D., director of the Baylor Human Genome Sequencing Center, have helped Silva set up a laboratory so he can provide patients services through Faith in Practice. Susan Fernbach, R.N., a long-time collaborator with Belmont in the Baylor Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, has provided a key liaison for Silva with the Baylor Medical Genetics program.
"It's been fascinating," said Belmont, whose wife, Nancy Glass, M.D., professor of pediatric anesthesiology at BCM, also provides care through the organization. "Certainly, I've gotten more out of it than I've put in. It is a remarkable country. The kind of basic work that Faith in Practice is doing is really phenomenal."
"You wouldn't think that genetics has that much of a role in it, but the reason that Faith in Practice contacted me is that they are providing hundreds of surgeries for children with birth defects," he said. Common defects are those of neural tube, such as spina bifida, and cleft palate.
"They are looking for some kind of context to put it into so they can orient their surgical services to have the biggest impact. It is actually relevant to their public health needs."
