A new NIH $26.2 million grant program has allocated funds to 10 research projects aimed at better understanding the relationships among genetic factors, socioeconomic stressors, and health outcomes.Research teams at universities across the nation will examine a variety of conditions and diseases that may disproportionately affect underserved patients living in environments filled with stressors. At U-M, one team of researchers led by Colter Mitchell will explore whether changes in activity of specific DNA segments can mediate the stress-response behaviors of children and adolescents exposed to negative social factors, such as poverty and family instability. Another team led by Brenda Needham will investigate whether the same DNA alteration process is related to varying mortality rates from cardiovascular disease among different ethnic and racial groups.

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