Freeborn Rwere, PhD

I am interested in studying the genetic variants of mitochondrial ALDH2 that cause alcohol flushing in East and non-East Asians, particularly ALDH2*2 (E504K), ALDH2 R101G and ALDH2 R114W. I am also interested in study of genetic variants of the widespread microsomal cytochromes P450 system, particularly, the drug metabolizing mammalian cytochrome P450 2C19. We are involved in genotyping individuals (East and non-East Asians in the Bay Area) for loss of function CYP2C19 variants namely: CYP2C19*2, *3 and *5 and developing biochemical assays for their characterizations.