The Puerto Rico Consortium for Clinical Investigation (PRCCI) is joining forces with Yale University in a new $5.6 million award from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us Research Program to establish the Coast-to-Coast Consortium (C2C). Yale University will lead the new consortium to further participant enrollment and engagement efforts across seven organizations.

The award is designated to facilitate participant engagement, enrollment, data collection, and retention. C2C will build on the foundation set by the California Precision Medicine Consortium (CAPMC), established in 2018, which enrolled more than 65,500 participants to the program. Notably, 88% of these participants come from communities historically underrepresented in biomedical research. This diversity not only enriches the All of Us dataset but also ensures that research findings are applicable and beneficial to all populations.

Amarilys Silva-Boschetti, the principal investigator for the award at PRCCI, underscored the significance of this program. “The All of Us Program provides an unprecedented opportunity to include diverse populations in large-scale genomic research. By including individuals from historically underrepresented communities, we can uncover insights into genetic variations that may have been overlooked in the past, ultimately leading to more equitable healthcare for all.”

PRCCI collaborates with C2C, including Yale University, the University of California, San Diego; the University of California, Davis; the University of California, San Francisco; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and the University of Southern California, in its research efforts. C2C represents a diverse and dynamic network committed to advancing biomedical research and innovation.

This award follows the program’s recent achievement of returning personalized health-related DNA results to more than 100,000 participants. Returning results to participants involves examining a specific set of genes that are associated with certain serious health conditions, such as hereditary cancers and heart disease. Through this process, the program observed 32,500 DNA variants. More than 7,000 of these variants had never been observed among people who had previously had genetic testing. By empowering participants with actionable information, the program is not only advancing individual health outcomes but also contributing to global genomic medicine research efforts.

Recruitment for All of Us is ongoing. Volunteers must be at least 21 years old and can represent any gender, race, ethnicity, or cultural background. Participants are invited to an initial in-person visit of 30 minutes to an hour, with regular online updates regarding health and lifestyle in subsequent months and years.

With continuing efforts to expand participation, the All of Us Research Program continues to make strides toward its goal of creating a diverse and comprehensive dataset that will drive transformative biomedical research discoveries, reflecting PRCCI’s unwavering dedication to pioneering research and promoting equitable healthcare.

More than 800,000 individuals have joined the program to contribute to this research effort. Participants can share a wide range of data from biosamples, survey responses, physical measurements, electronic health records (EHRs), and wearable devices. These data are made broadly available to registered researchers through the program’s Researcher Workbench, fostering biomedical research discoveries and promoting health equity.

More than 75% of All of Us participants self-identify with communities historically underrepresented in medical research, while about 45% identify with a racial or ethnic minority group.

To learn more or enroll, visit the All of Us PRCCI website at JoinAllofUs.org/PRCCI.

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The All of Us Research Program’s Coast-to-Coast Consortium at Yale University is funded by the National Institutes of Health award OT2OD037644.