A Human Cell Map of Latin American Diversity

Latin America is one of the richest regions in the world in terms of ethnic diversity and genetic admixture between indigenous and other continental ancestries. These ancestries have been underrepresented in genomics and transcriptomics studies and may harbor undiscovered population-specific expression patterns at the cellular level. Without high-resolution characterization of understudied Latin American populations, the development of precision medicine strategies in the region will be limited and health disparities will be perpetuated.

To address this imbalance, this network aims to build a Latin American cell map of immune blood cells and gallbladder tissue cell types from diverse Indigenous and mixed populations from six countries across the Americas (Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, and U.S. Latinos). These datasets will be used to identify ancestry-specific RNA profiles across cis regulatory profiles, and to complement data from disease cohorts relevant to the local epidemiology of participating communities. Research results will also be shared with participating communities. These results will also inform the identification of specific disease markers and mechanisms in future studies.