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The need for genetic studies of Indigenous Australians

Gareth S Baynam
Med J Aust 2012; 196 (5): . || doi: 10.5694/mja11.11459
Published online: 19 March 2012

To the Editor: The continuing integration of genetic technologies into clinical medicine is providing opportunities for health care improvement. This has the potential to reduce health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in several ways: improving our understanding of disease pathogenesis, obtaining a perspective from which to view environmental risks, improving prediction of disease risk, identifying new diagnostic techniques and drug targets, and making advances in pharmacogenomics.


  • Genetic Services of Western Australia, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Perth, WA.



Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Kowal E, Rouhani L, Anderson I. Genetic research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: beginning the conversation. Melbourne: The Lowitja Institute, 2011.
  • 2. Genomes by the thousand. Nature 2010; 467: 1026-1027.
  • 3. Bustamante CD, Burchard EG, De la Vega FM. Genomics for the world. Nature 2011; 475: 163-165.
  • 4. Manolio TA, Collins FS, Cox NJ, et al. Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases. Nature 2009; 461: 747-753.

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