DHI Research Laboratory

Blacktown - Mt Druitt Clinical School/ University of Western Sydney School of Medicine

Ethnicity must be considered in studies intending to discover whether specific characteristics are associated with disease risk or drug toxicity. Also, using medical treatment that has been proven effective for particular racial or ethnic groups has been found to be ineffective and even dangerous for another.

Race and ethnicity cannot be given precise genetic definitions, as there is considerable genetic variation within racial and ethnic groups. Nonetheless, some genetic variants are more common in some racial or ethnic groups than in others. This has implications for clinical trials and for the development of treatments.

It is now recognised that genetic polymorphism differences can not only have a great influence on the efficacy and toxicity of medications, but also on the development and progress of several diseases such as diabetes. People with a particular genotype, or genetic characteristic, may suffer adverse responses to a treatment and such responses may be traced through families, ethnic groups and geographic clusters.

The Diversity Health Research Laboratory is an interdisciplinary centre for scientific research and teaching at Blacktown-Mt Druitt Clinical School/University of Western Sydney School of Medicine. The laboratory supports a broad array of projects, from the application of new diagnostic methods to different research projects in Personalised Medicine.

For further information, please submit an enquiry form.

The DHI Research Laboratory is a NATA Accredited Laboratory compliant with ISO/IEC 17025 (2005) for Research and Development and Non-routine Analysis (1998).

Contacts:

For project information and development contact:
Professor Mark Maclean
Phone: +61 2 9851 6071
e-mail: M.Mclean@uws.edu.au

Last Updated 13 Feb 2009