Historic Background:

The LBA was founded in 1975, after the Student Health Center vacated its space and was relocated to a new facility. Administratively, the LBA was established as a research center of the Graduate School and the Research Sector of the University of Kansas. In 1985, the Midwest Twin Registry was organized and housed in the LBA. Periodic twin fairs were held at the University of Kansas and in various locations throughout the State of Kansas and Iowa. The Editorial Office of the international journal, Human Biology, was added to the LBA in 1988 and remained there until 2000, when Professor Crawford stepped down as Editor-in-Chief.

Since its inception in 1975, the LBA has supported graduate and undergraduate students in their Honor’s and Master’s theses and Ph.D. dissertation research. Many of the graduates from the LBA have gone on to distinguished careers in biological anthropology, human genetics, and genetic epidemiology. These graduates are located at the following universities and institutions: Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research; University of Utah (Departments of Anthropology and Pediatrics); Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina; University of Cincinnati Medical Center, South Florida University; Smithsonian Institution; University of Miami; University of Chicago; University of Texas Medical Center-San Antonio; University of Alabama; Museum of Natural History, NY; Illinois State University; Idaho State University; Lander University; and  University of Houston.

During the last decade, the LBA has hosted scores of visiting international scientists. Post-doctoral fellows that have conducted research at the LBA came from: the Indian Statistical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, University of Ohio, Western Washington University, University of Florida, National University of Argentina, Cordoba.

Support for the research programs come from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Geographic Society, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, General Research Funds from the University of Kansas, National Academy of Sciences, Chiang Chang Kao Foundation, and the Settlement Fund from the State of Kansas Attorney General’s Office. 

Facilities:

The LBA is located in Lippincott Hall and consists of two molecular genetics laboratories, a computer room, a suite of three offices, and the director’s office and conference room. The laboratories are equipped for standard molecular genetic and anthropological genetic research.

A number of research collections are housed in the LBA, These include: DNA samples from the major geographic regions of the world (Africa, Europe, Asia, and North and South America); nonhuman primate specimens, dental casts from several Mexican Native and Black Carib populations; dermatoglyphic prints from various populations, samples of individuals with various chromosomal anomalies, and the Midwest Twin Register, which contains information on more than 600 monozygous (MZ) and dizygous (DZ) twin pairs from Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. Several research programs, including studies of migraine headaches, voice acoustics, prematurity, and schizophrenia-related behaviors have been conducted on samples from our data base.

LBA in the News:

Dr. Crawford attended the first Edinburg, Texas Regional Academic Health Center population genetics conference.

Gaining a better understanding of the role genetics plays in the development of diseases such as diabetes and obesity that affect American Indian, Mexican and Central American populations more than other groups was the topic of the first population genetics conference at the Regional Academic Health Center in Edinburg (continue story ).

Current Research:

I. Movement and Genetic Structure of Populations of Central America and the Caribbean

The first part of this research on the genetic admixture and transplantation of populations of Mexico was initiated in 1968 and completed in 1975. Field research on Tlaxcaltecans was conducted in the State of Tlaxcala (San Pablo del Monte and the City of Tlaxcala) and transplanted populations in the Valley of Mexico (Cuanalan) and in the State of Coahuila (Saltillo). For a summary of these investigations see: Crawford, M.H. 1976 The Tlaxcaltecans, Prehistory, Demography, Morphology and Genetics. Publications in Anthropology #7, University of Kansas.

From 1975-1982, we conducted field investigations on the genetic structure and origins of Black Caribs (Garifuna) of St. Vincent Island, Livingston, Guatemala, and Belize (Dangriga, Punta Gorda and Belize City). The genetic, historic and demographic research revealed a unique history of an evolutionary success story—a small group (fewer than 2,000) from St. Vincent colonized much of the coast of Central America.

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From 2005 to present, a follow up study using DNA markers was conducted by Christine Krawczak for her Ph.D. dissertation in the KU Genetics Program. Garifuna of St. Vincent Island and Belize were sampled, along with the Native population of Dominica. Christine will be defending her dissertation in the Fall semester 2008.

New Research:

In 2007, an agreement was signed between the School of Biology, University of Costa Rica (UCR) and the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology (LBA) for a joint study of the origins and the genetic structure of  Central American indigenous populations. A delegation (sponsored by the International Studies Program at the University of Kansas) visited San Jose and a Guaymi community on the Panama border, to develop a long term research program. With the support of General Research Funds from K.U., doctoral candidates Phillip E. Melton and Norberto Baldi-Salas conducted field investigations during November 2007 in Nicaragua with Rama indigenous communities.  They have organized a symposium on “Estructura Genetica y Migracion de las Poblaciones Indigenas de Centro y Sur America,” for the II Congress Latino Americano de Antropologia Desdo la Antropologica Genetica,” July 28-31st in San Jose, Costa Rica..

II. Tuberculosis Susceptibility: Genetic/environmental Interactions

Through the support of the Provost’s Office at the University of Kansas, an International Consortium was established to study genetic/environmental interactions among strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the immune system of the human host, and environmental risk factors (such as nutrition, smoking, household composition, occupation) that contribute to the complex phenotype of tuberculosis infection.

The International Consortium for the Study of Tuberculosis (ICST) was established in 2006 at a meeting in the University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. This consortium is situated in the LBA and consists of tuberculosis researchers, anthropological geneticists, microbiologists, physicians, epidemiologists from the University of Kansas (Lawrence campus and Medical Center, Kansas City), University of Arizona, University of Texas-El Paso, University of Chihuahua, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Texas Department of State Health Services, Kansas State Department of Health, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, Sakha Health Department, Russia.

A workshop on the clinical manifestation of TB, organized by Dr. Luis Escobedo, was held in El Paso on August 22 and 23rd, 2007. This workshop was a huge success and was followed by a meeting of the ICST on August 25 in the City of Chihuahua, Mexico. At that meeting, a memorandum of agreement was signed between the Mexican Consortium and ICST, for an ongoing research collaboration.

Field investigations have been initiated by Drs. Bart Dean and M.J. Mosher in the summer of 2008 on the assessment of environmental factors that influence genetic susceptibility to tuberculosis.

III. Peopling of the Americas from Siberia

This research program was begun in 1977 in Alaska with Yupik and Inupik Eskimos of St. Lawrence Island, King Island and Wales, Alaska. The relationship between genetics and language barriers was first examined between Yupik and Inupik groups. The allelic frequencies from Alaskan populations were compared with those found in indigenous Siberian ethnic groups. In 1989, with perestroika and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, field investigations were begun in Central Siberia with Evenki reindeer herders and Ket fishermen and hunters. The final phase of this research started in 1999 and continued for the next decade with the sampling of all eleven populated islands of the Aleutian Archipelago and compared to indigenous populations of Kamchatka and Alaska. For a discussion of the field investigations by the LBA, see: Crawford 2007 Anthropological Genetics: Theory, Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press, pp. 79-111.