Symposium will shed light on Cajun genetics
Researchers target hereditary illnesses
03/09/01
By John Pope
Staff writer/The Times-Picayune
The relative isolation of Cajun Louisiana over the centuries has made
for a distinctive and justly celebrated culture of food and music, but
also for something less merry: heightened incidence of certain genetic
diseases and disorders.
It's the result of the core population's remaining relatively constant
over the centuries, said LSU geneticist Bronya Keats, who has studied
the Cajun population for 17 years.
"This limits your gene pool and raises the possibility that people in
the same population are carrying the same defective genes," she said.
Among these hereditary conditions are Friedreich's ataxia, an affliction
affecting the spinal column that causes twitching and a loss of
coordination, and Usher syndrome, which causes deafness and blindness.
More common illnesses that can be inherited include obesity, diabetes
and some forms of cancer.
While some conditions may occur once in every 50,000 births in the
general American population, the likelihood of finding those disorders
in Cajun babies can be 2½ times greater, Keats said.
A free symposium on these diseases and progress in detecting and,
eventually, correcting them will be held Saturday at Nicholls State
University in Thibodaux.
"Genetics of the Acadian People," sponsored by Nicholls and Louisiana
State University Health Sciences Center's Molecular and Human Genetics
Center, is designed to present scientific information to a lay audience.
It will start at 9 a.m. in Talbot Theater on the Nicholls campus, and is
scheduled to last until 4:30 p.m.
Besides tracking relatively rare afflictions, genetic research in that
part of Louisiana has widespread benefits, said John Doucet, a Nicholls
biologist.
"If we understand how people suffer from diabetes and obesity at the
genetic level, we're helping hundreds of millions of people," he said.
The prospects for progress are even better now that the human genome --
the chromosomal blueprint of human life -- has been mapped, Doucet said.
"All we need is to go into somebody's DNA and look for a defect," he
said. "There are ways we are looking at right now that will let us go in
there and fix it or replace it."
The close-knit Cajun community has been an object of intense scientific
concern, not only because of what researchers can learn there but also
because of the importance of such matters as education and genetic
counseling, said Keats, a conference organizer.
"Our goal is to provide education in genetics and genetic diseases in
the Acadian population, but at the same time to explain that the Acadian
population is a model for other populations," she said. "Diseases that
occur in the Acadians are occurring in other populations."
In discussions with residents of southwest Louisiana, Keats said,
researchers want to make one point clear: These afflictions are nobody's
fault.
"It's not anything they did wrong," she said. "It's the luck of
the
draw."
Saturday's meeting is the second to inform people about genetic
illnesses and investigations in southwest Louisiana. Organizers hope to
attract about 400 people.
The day will feature a mixture of speeches and small-group meetings
where participants can question researchers. Topics will include the
roles genes play in cancer, obesity, diabetes and mental illness;
genetic testing and counseling; and gene-based therapies.
Although the symposium is free, preregistration is recommended because
seating is limited. Participants can register by calling Judy Laborde at
568-6117 or by going to
www.lsuhsc.edu/centers/genetics.
John Pope can be reached at jpope(a)timespicayune.com or at (504)
826-3317.