UC Irvine to establish All of Us research consortium in Southern California

Irvine, Calif. July 22, 2024 — The National Institutes of Health has chosen a University of California, Irvine researcher to lead a Southern California-based consortium for the nationwide All of Us Research Program.

Hoda Anton-Culver, Ph.D., a Donald Bren Professor and Distinguished Professor of medicine at UC Irvine, will lead the All of Us Southern California Consortium along with investigators from Loma Linda University Health (LLU Health) and MemorialCare.The consortium will enroll participants that reflect the diversity of the U.S., including people who identify with communities historically underrepresented in research, such as those of minority race and ethnicity groups, socioeconomic levels, gender identity and sexual orientation, cultural diversity, and occupational and environmental exposure.

The NIH has awarded Anton-Culver an initial $4 million for the consortium’s first year with renewal potential every year for four additional years.

Eligible adults who live in the U.S. can join the research program. Enrollment locations at UCI Health, MemorialCare and LLU Health make joining the research program easy and accessible for patients and people living in the local communities.

“All of Us has taken a major step toward advancing personalized medicine and improving our understanding of various health conditions by studying a diverse and large population,” said Anton-Culver. “Its comprehensive approach to gathering data, including genetic, environmental, and lifestyle information, can lead to more customized health care solutions and treatments tailored to individual needs.”

Launched in 2018, the All of Us Research Program is a major initiative by the National Institutes of Health to gather health data from one million or more people living in the United States. The program is building one of the most diverse health databases in history to accelerate precision medicine research and improve health by considering individual differences in lifestyle, environment and biology. By participating, individuals can contribute to a repository of data for researchers to better understand health and disease, and potentially develop more personalized approaches to treatments and interventions.

The All of Us Research Program has already enrolled more than 820,000 participants nationwide. It is one of the largest, most diverse databases of its kind with over 80 percent of participants identifying with a community who is underrepresented in biomedical research, including approximately 45 percent who are underrepresented by race and ethnicity. The establishment of the All of Us Southern California Consortium builds upon the past six-year success of UC Irvine as an enrollment partner of the All of Us Research Program. Since 2018,  UC Irvine  has enrolled more than 28,000 participants.

To mark this new award, the All of Us Southern California Consortium will host a kick-off event on Tuesday, Aug. 6 at UC Irvine. Welcoming remarks will come from Michael Stamos, M.D., dean of the UC Irvine School of Medicine. Josh Denny, M.D., M.S., chief executive officer of All of Us, will provide an overview of the national program. Anton-Culver will present a scientific roadmap of how All of Us will lead to research discoveries, and the investigators from UC Irvine, MemorialCare and LLU Health will describe the impact of the program on the communities in Southern California and provide closing remarks. The event will conclude with a tour of the new All of Us facilities at UC Irvine.

The media, public officials and their representatives, and community leaders are encouraged to attend. For more information, please contact allofus@uci.edu.  

“The program’s commitment to including participants from all backgrounds aligns with the broader goals of ensuring that medical research benefits everyone, particularly underrepresented communities,” said Stamos, who was the first All of Us participant from UC Irvine. “Being part of such a large, nationwide initiative provides tremendous opportunities for collaboration among researchers, healthcare providers, and institutions. This can accelerate scientific discoveries and innovations.”

There are currently nearly 12,000 researchers nationwide registered to use the All of Us data; of those, more than 150 researchers are from UC Irvine alone. The goal of the All of Us Research Program is to build a new body of knowledge that has the potential to advance health care for all people.

About the Southern California Consortium

UC Irvine All of Us invited two sub-awardees, Loma Linda University Health and MemorialCare, to join the All of Us Southern California Consortium to expand inclusion into underrepresented communities throughout Southern California. 

Loma Linda University Health has decades of experience with population research, including special communities such as the Seventh Day Adventists. Dmitry Abramov, M.D., is the sub-award principal investigator for LLUH. “I am very pleased to be leading the LLUH efforts in the participation of this important precision medicine research, which will include representation of the diverse communities from Loma Linda,” he said.

MemorialCare was also selected as the other sub-awardee for the All of Us Southern California Consortium. “The MemorialCare network will help bring greater access to the All of Us Research Program,” said Fady Youssef, M.D., sub-award principal investigator for MemorialCare. “I’m thrilled to be part of a research program that is working to improve health outcomes in underserved communities.”

To learn more about the All of Us Research Program, please visit https://www.joinallofus.org/.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus studio with a Comrex IP audio codec to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at https://news.uci.edu/media-resources.