5/12/2011
PARSA Community Foundation announces a $250,000 grant to the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University for the "Iranian Genome Project," a one-of-a-kind initiative for better understanding of the genes of the Iranian population.
Researchers at various universities and companies have been working on genetics and genomics. However, the genetics of the Iranian population has never been studied before. There is no base data on which to evaluate the risk factors of new drugs, as they are being developed, for people of this ethnic background. This population-specific information is crucial to understanding the health benefits and risk factors of certain drugs. It also helps researchers explain history of a certain population in more depth.