NIH Awards Coast-to-Coast Consortium $5.6 Million for All of Us Research Program

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have been awarded a $5.6 million grant through the Coast-to-Coast Consortium (C2C) to further their pioneering efforts with the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us Research Program.

The award is designated to facilitate participant engagement, enrollment, data collection, and retention. C2C will build on the foundation set by the UCSD-led California Precision Medicine Consortium (CAPMC), established in 2018, which enrolled more than 65,500 participants to the program.

This award follows the program’s recent achievement of returning personalized health-related DNA results to more than 100,000 participants. Returning results to participants involves examining a specific set of genes that are associated with certain serious health conditions, such as hereditary cancers and heart disease. Through this process, the program observed 32,500 DNA variants. More than 7,000 of these variants had never been observed among people who had previously had genetic testing. By empowering participants with actionable information, the program is not only advancing individual health outcomes but also contributing to global genomic medicine research efforts.

“This research grant from the NIH to expand the All of Us Program is a testament to the power of collaboration and our commitment to advancing health equity through innovative research,” said Steven R. Garfin, M.D., interim dean of UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The data collected through the All of Us research program has the ability to drive discoveries that will benefit diverse populations across the globe, and we’re proud to be a part of this effort.”

UC San Diego collaborates with C2C, including Yale University, the University of California Davis; the University of California San Francisco; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the University of Southern California, and the Puerto Rico Consortium for Clinical Investigation, in its research efforts. C2C represents a diverse and dynamic network committed to advancing biomedical research and innovation.

Amy Sitapati, M.D., interim chief of the Division of Biomedical Informatics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and the principal investigator for the grant at UC San Diego, underscored the significance of this milestone. “The All of Us Program provides an unprecedented opportunity to include diverse populations in large-scale genomic research. By including individuals from historically underrepresented communities, we can uncover insights into genetic variations that may have been overlooked in the past, ultimately leading to more equitable health care for all.”

“What’s most exciting,” Sitapati explains, “is the NIH’s commitment to sharing data, including genetic results, with participants. This engagement empowers community researchers to not only join, but also participate as researchers themselves.”

Since its establishment, the All of Us team at UC San Diego has enrolled more than 12,500 local participants in the program. Notably, 86% of these participants come from communities traditionally underrepresented in biomedical research. This diversity not only enriches the dataset but also ensures that research findings are applicable and beneficial to all populations.

The All of Us team at UC San Diego enrolls participants in San Diego County and Imperial County, including El Centro and Calexico, in collaboration with El Centro Regional Medical Center. The program is supported by UC San Diego Health’s broader leadership, including CEO Patty Maysent, ensuring patient-centered access to research near participants’ care locations.

Recruitment for All of Us at UC San Diego is ongoing. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and can represent any gender, race, ethnicity, or cultural background. Participants are invited to an initial in-person visit of 30 minutes to an hour, with regular online updates regarding health and lifestyle in subsequent months and years.

With continuing efforts to expand participation, the All of Us Research Program continues to make strides toward its goal of creating a diverse and comprehensive dataset that will drive transformative biomedical research discoveries, reflecting UC San Diego’s unwavering dedication to pioneering research and promoting equitable healthcare.

More than 800,000 individuals have joined the program to contribute to this research effort. Participants can share a wide range of data from biosamples, survey responses, physical measurements, electronic health records (EHRs), and wearable devices. These data are made broadly available to registered researchers through the program’s Researcher Workbench, fostering biomedical research discoveries and promoting health equity.

More than 75% of All of Us participants self-identify with communities historically underrepresented in medical research, while about 45% identify with a racial or ethnic minority group.

To learn more or enroll, visit the All of Us UCSD website at AllofUsUCSD.org.

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The All of Us Research Program’s Coast-to-Coast Consortium at Yale University is funded by the National Institutes of Health award OT2OD037644.

All of Us is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS).