Research results utilizing the research resources of BioBank Japan (BBJ) have been published in Nature Communications.

A joint research group led by Yuji Yamamoto of Osaka University (PhD student at the Graduate School of Medicine) and Professor Yukinori Okada has conducted a large-scale genomic analysis, using genomic data of East Asian individuals including 232,987 participants in BioBank Japan (BBJ) and 751,051 European individuals, to compare genetic associations among 12 respiratory, immune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases. The analysis revealed a negative genetic correlation between respiratory and metabolic diseases in the East Asian population, in contrast to a positive correlation observed in the European population. Furthermore, analyses incorporating blood metabolite and protein data, as well as PPAR pathways gene sets, suggested genetic heterogeneity among diseases and differences specific to cell types.

Original paper

Dissecting cross-population polygenic heterogeneity across respiratory and cardiometabolic diseases
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 28;16(1):3765

Press Release in Japanese

https://resou.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/research/2025/20250428_1