Human Heart Atlas of Diverse Ancestry

Adults from diverse ancestries have different odds of developing heart disease due to genetics and environmental factors. Previously, epigenomics studies have failed to capture the spectrum of ancestral diversity, as population studies are predominantly based on European ancestry. The under-representation of ancestry impedes scientists’ ability to understand the genetic architecture of human disease, leading to health inequality. Furthermore, the observations from the European population may not be transferable across populations for complex traits such as cardiometabolic diseases.

This interdisciplinary team will construct a single-cell transcriptomic and epigenetic atlas of hearts from donors of diverse and historically underrepresented ancetries. Specifically, this team will construct single-cell multi-omics and spatial transcriptomics profiles of 60 healthy hearts originating from people of diverse ancestral backgrounds, including African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and Pacific Islanders. The project will profile the transcriptome and epigenome of more than 60,000 heart cells for single-cell transcriptomics and epigenetics and 600 spatially resolved transcriptomes of adult hearts from diverse ancestries.