Dr. Jimmy Breen Talk, Australian National University

Genomic medicine represents a once-in-a-generation step change in healthand medical sciences. Human genome reference assemblies underpin theserecent advances in genomic medicine by enabling precision research into thegenomic architecture of human development and disease. Despite theseadvances, many minority populations are not adequately represented ingenomic research. This is exacerbated by the fact that the research community has largely failed to engage with these communities, resulting in massive inequalities in access to genomic research, clinical genetics and precision medicine. This is particularly true for Indigenous Australians. Our knowledge of chronic diseases that disproportionally impact Indigenous communities, namely Type-2 Diabetes and related Cardiometabolic disorders, is hampered by a lack of genomics research. In this talk, I will introduce our new research group Black Ochre Data Labs. Our lab is Aboriginal led and co-funded by the Telethon Kids Institute and ANU. We are currently running the PROPHECY Diabetes Multi-omics Cohort Study, and I will outline our objectives to develop a Precision Healthcare approaches for Indigenous Australians suffering from T2D.