Carl E. James, the Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community and Diaspora in York University’s Faculty of Education, brings his expertise to a four-year Genome Canada research project focused on Canada’s Black population.
Genomic Evidence for Precision Medicine for Selected Chronic Diseases Among Black Peoples in Canada – developed through collaboration with the Centre for Applied Genomics, at SickKids Hospital and McGill Genome Centre – is an effort to sequence the genomes of 10,000 Black Canadians to ensure equitable health care for an often-understudied population.
By sequencing the nucleotides that make up the participants’ DNA and RNA, researchers will gain a better understanding of how diseases affect Canada’s Black population and develop better precision medicines to target their conditions.
“We need to encourage these approaches for research, since medical studies often miss the racial diversity of health care recipients,” says James, a renowned sociologist with a research focus on race and ethnic relations. “In fact, we need to understand differences in all populations.”
The study is led by four prominent medical researchers: Upton Allen, division head at SickKids Hospital’s Infectious Diseases and professor at the University of Toronto; Loydie Jerome-Majewska, McGill University Department of Pediatrics professor and co-founder/program lead for the Canadian Black Scientists’ Network (CSBN); Juliet Daniel, McMaster University cell biologist and cancer researcher; and OmiSoore Dryden, professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University.
James’ contributions are rooted in his strengths in public education and work on the diversity of Black communities in Canada. He will work toward strengthening community outreach and participant recruitment, helping to ensure that diversity among Black community members is reflected in the project. Additionally, he will help disseminate findings to Black communities and assist in developing education programs based on those findings.
The invitiation to join the project aligns closely with James’ work, as he is finalizing the fifth edition of his seminal textbook, Seeing Ourselves: Exploring Race, Ethnicity and Culture, due out in October 2026.
In the textbook, he reminds students that reporting one’s race as Black or white, for example, does not tell us about their genetic makeup, because race as a social construct materializes in individuals’ lives in different ways. Researchers have found that race as “a biological marker” – and related experiences with stress based on trauma, discrimination and economic hardship – contribute to higher levels of inflammation and poor health, he writes.
At the project launch on Jan. 27, Jean Augustine volunteered to enrol in the study and expressed appreciation for James’ involvement, noting that programs like these advance community education and health, which speak to her vision for the holder of the endowed Chair in her name.
As the project unfolds, James says, “I want to make sure we pay attention to the heterogeneity within the Black community in Canada. For example, third-plus-generation Black Canadians are most likely to be of Caribbean descent, while most first- and second-generation Black Canadians are likely continental Africans. There are cultural and environmental differences that likely account for genetic differences.”
Once the 10,000 genomes are sequenced and the results analyzed, researchers will be able to offer medical professionals, researchers and Black community members more information on disease patterns. The new data can be used to inform health education programs, as well as health screening and treatment.
“The ultimate goal is to address some of the social disparities and gain cultural understanding and treatment and to improve Black health,” says James.
With files from Elaine Smith