Martin Mendoza, Ph.D., recently joined the All of Us Research Program as the first Director of Health Equity, a new senior leadership role. Dr. Mendoza will use his significant expertise in addressing health equity issues to help improve inclusion in precision medicine research. He brings a commitment to scientific excellence in confronting the systemic and structural racism that has long affected the health and lives of underrepresented groups across the country.
Nearly 100,000 highly diverse whole genome sequences are now available through the National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program. About 50% of the data is from individuals who identify with racial or ethnic groups that have historically been underrepresented in research. This data will enable researchers to address yet unanswerable questions about health and disease, leading to new breakthroughs and advancing discoveries to reduce persistent health disparities.
The All of Us Research Program reached an important milestone this week with the release of its initial genomic dataset. Nearly 100,000 whole genome sequences (WGS) and 165,000 genotyping arrays are now available within the Researcher Workbench, less than two years after the beta launch of the platform. Nearly 50% of the data come from participants who self-identify with a racial or ethnic minority group.
