By Lora Hines

Houston Chronicle

Published: September 18, 2013

More than 10,000 veterans have enrolled in Houston in a nationwide program designed to understand the role genes play in health and eventually improve ways of preventing and treating illnesses.

Houston's Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center is among 50 facilities participating in a nationwide program to enroll 1 million veterans in the data collection system.

The Department of Veterans Affairs launched the voluntary Million Veteran Program three years ago to better understand how genes affect veterans' health and their ability to fight illnesses. The program requires participants to provide DNA so researchers can use it for future studies, said Dr. Rayan Al Jurdi, the Houston site's principal investigator.

In addition to DNA, researchers also will collect health, lifestyle and military-exposure information from questionnaires and medical records for a database. So far, the database has information from more than 250,000 veterans, including nearly 10,200 from the Houston VA, making it the largest study site, the VA said.

"Anyone in the VA, regardless of what diseases they do and don't have can participate," Al Jurdi said, adding that program could create the largest genetic sample worldwide. "That's what's exciting about it. The research possibilities are endless."

Participants include veterans who served as long ago as World War II and those who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan, Al Jurdi said. The database will give researchers access to large samples to study conditions such as diabetes, post-traumatic stress and depression, he said.

So far, no research has begun, Al Jurdi said.

Follow this link:
VA seeking 1 million volunteers for gene research

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