Former mayor urges fellow South Asian citizens to be part of landmark research study

A former Lord Mayor of Manchester has become the 3,000th person in Greater Manchester to take part in a pioneering study aimed at understanding and tackling the higher rates of serious disease in South Asian people.

Councillor Yasmine Dar says she is proud to be part of the Genes & Health Study and has encouraged others to get involved.

Genes & Health is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). It is being carried out in several parts of England and is making major advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

Researchers behind the study want to better understand the link between a person’s genes and the chance of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, mental health conditions and cancer.

The study is open to people from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities as they are significantly underrepresented in genetic research, meaning that they may not benefit from research discoveries and new treatments.

People from communities across Greater Manchester have been participating in Genes & Health since 2022.

Opportunities to take part, in places such as mosques and community events, have been made available by teams working on the study from the NIHR Research Delivery Network, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.

Cllr Dar, who made history by becoming the first British woman of Asian heritage to be the Lord Mayor of Manchester in 2023/24, joins more than 71,000 people to have taken part in the study across England so far.

As a person of Pakistani heritage, the mum-of-two was keen to get involved in the research, particularly as her youngest daughter lives with a genetic metabolic disorder which affects the absorption of vitamins in the body. Cllr Dar also sits on Manchester City Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee

Participation in the study involves providing a small saliva sample, completing a short health questionnaire and agreeing for Genes & Health to securely link to the person’s NHS health data.

“I thought it was so important for me to take part in this,” said Cllr Dar, who represents Moston, in North Manchester, on the city council and has worked in the social welfare sector for 30 years.

“In my year as Lord Mayor, every day I met different people and groups and learned all about the great work they do, but I also heard about some of the challenges facing communities in Manchester. Health is one of the biggest challenges, particularly for people from South Asian backgrounds, so why wouldn’t we want to help this kind of study?

“It’s a chance to contribute to research and to help make a difference to health outcomes for future generations. It only takes 5 minutes of your time, but it can make a huge difference.”

Professor Bill Newman, Consultant in Genomic Medicine at MFT and Principal Investigator for the study at Saint Mary’s Hospital, part of MFT, said: “I’d like to thank Yasmine for becoming our 3,000th participant and for helping raise awareness of this important study through her work in the community and the council. We’ve still got lots more work to do and we’d encourage anyone from our Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities to consider getting involved as well.

“Genes & Health is a great example of how the NHS is aiming to make research more inclusive and accessible by taking studies into everyday locations where it’s easier for people to take part and make a difference to future health and care.”

The study aims to recruit 100,000 people, aged 16 and over, living in England by the end of 2028. It will help researchers to:

• Analyse genetic differences in Bangladeshi and Pakistani people compared to other groups and understand how these may lead to certain diseases
• Study if new tests and treatments work equally well for everyone
• Contribute to the development of new drug treatments that are safe and effective for British Bangladeshi and British Pakistani people
• Build better tools to predict who is at risk of certain diseases so that the NHS can offer preventative care to those who most need it.

The study has already made important discoveries, including the identification of genetic factors specific to South Asian people that lead to earlier type 2 diabetes onset. It has also found that certain medications given to people after they have had a heart attack to prevent further problems may not be effective, leading to a change in how these drugs are prescribed.

The study has been supported by a range of funders, including the UK-Government funded Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust, the UK’s foremost medical charity.

People who want to take part should contact elgh@qmul.ac.uk.

To learn more about research and to search for and sign up to trials seeking volunteers visit www.bepartofresearch.uk