CARBON: UAB Cardiovascular Research Biobank

The UAB Cardiovascular Research Biobank (CARBON) will be a resource that contains pertinent genetic, health, and biological samples such as blood derived from a large-scale population. Researchers may use disease correlates and predictors identified from the genetic, health, and personal information contained in the Biobank as a resource to investigate cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, and a myriad of other disorders. Through these studies, researchers may identify the progression of risk factors in certain diseases and help develop novel strategies to detect, treat, or prevent such diseases. In addition, the Biobank serves as a valuable tool to assess how certain treatments may respond differently to individuals as a result of genotypic differences.

The investigators have demonstrated that lower natriuretic peptide (NP) levels are associated with a decreased insulin sensitivity and have a causal role in the development of diabetes and have also shown that certain populations, such as African Americans, have relatively low NP levels, which may contribute to their underlying risk for insulin resistance. Since NPs play an important role in the regulation of insulin sensitivity, one can infer that relatively low NP levels are an important biological contributor to the high prevalence rates of cardiometabolic disease in African Americans. The Biobank will contain genetic information concerning the presence of gene variants that encode NPs.