Genetics and Louisiana Families is a collection of educational information about genetics, especially those genetic issues that are important to the people of Louisiana. Genetics and Louisiana Families is written and designed to be useful to the families of individuals affected by genetic disease, as well as to their healthcare providers. By serving both families and providers, the authors of Genetics and Louisiana Families seek to create the common ground that is crucial in understanding the often complex genetic and social issues surrounding the health of individuals, communities, and cultures.
With Genetics and Louisiana Families, we have gathered the geneticists, researchers, educators, and counselors who are the most knowledgeable about genetics and Louisiana peoples. Most of the contributors to Genetics and Louisiana Families are Louisiana residents and practitioners, and others have either trained or have conducted research here among the families of Louisiana. While we focus on Louisiana and its peoples, we also recognize the remarkable genetic similarity of peoples around the world and from all cultures. For this reason, Genetics and Louisiana Families can serve as a useful resource of genetic information for all.
In Genetics and Louisiana Families, you will find the following features:
We encourage you to fully explore the Genetics and Louisiana Families website. Each of the chapters, articles, and stories are easily printable through your Internet browser, and you may keep printed copies either for your own information or to share with other families. Most importantly, we invite you to tell us about the usefulness of Genetics and Louisiana Families and to tell us what other types of information would be useful to you in future editions of the website. Because we adhere to a strict policy that protects your privacy as a concerned Louisiana citizen (see our Privacy Policy below), you should feel free to send us your comments and suggestions at any of the "Contact Us" icons on the website.
Genetics and Louisiana Families is a production of the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care.
About the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care
The Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care (CAGHHC) was established in 1999 to address the specific genetic needs of the people of Acadiana. Funding for the CAGHHC derives from a Rural Health Outreach Grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These funds are being applied to the establishment and expansion of clinical and educational programs across the fifteen-parish area of Acadiana, which extends roughly from west of Baton Rouge to the Texas state line and from the Gulf of Mexico north to Avoyelles Parish.
The CAGHHC is a cooperative of hereditary healthcare workers from medical, academic, and service institutions around the state. Under the direction of Dr. Bronya Keats, the Center is headquartered at LSU Health Sciences Center as an outreach component of the Molecular and Human Genetics Center of Excellence.
The concept to establish the CAGHHC was inaugurated by U.S. Congressman Billy Tauzin, who represents one of the largest Acadian constituencies in the state. With the support of the late Dr. Merv Trail, Chancellor of LSU Health Sciences Center, and Governor Mike Foster, Tauzin and his colleagues in the Louisiana Congressional delegation were united in their support to establish the CAGHHC. Together with Tauzin, Senators John Breaux and Mary Landrieu and Congressmen William Jefferson, David Vitter, Richard Baker, Chris John, Jim McCrery, and John Cooksey signed a letter endorsing establishment of the Center. Solid backing from the Louisiana Congressional delegation helped pave the way for Congressional hearings before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education in March of 1998, 1999 and 2000.
During these hearings, Tauzin explained that "the establishment of the Center meets the congressional objectives…of building the nation's health system by delivering services to the Americans who need them most-particularly those who are vulnerable and have special health conditions.
"The work being done by the Center for Acadiana Genetics not only benefits my rural district constituency, it helps all those young people who suffer because of hereditary health problems by providing America's medical and scientific research communities with the opportunity to study an important spectrum of genetic diseases in the unique multi-generational setting available in Louisiana."
John P. Doucet, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. He is an adjunct member of the faculties of Genetics and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He is a member of the Executive Board of the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care.
As his family name suggests, his father's family has an Acadian ancestry. His mother's family was Prussian. Coincidentally (and fortunately), both families eventually migrated to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana at Cheniere Caminada by the middle of the nineteenth century, adapting to the indelible culture of southern Louisiana that was later to be called "Cajun." Following several severe hurricanes, successive generations of those families moved progressively inland. Doucet was born in the small, inland fishing village of Golden Meadow, the fourth of five children to an oil field worker and his homemaker wife.
Doucet entered science at an early age. As a third grader at Golden Meadow Lower Elementary School, he achieved a perfect score on a national science and math competency test. When his parents where called in to the principal's office, the young Doucet thought that he "was in big trouble." But the meeting was congratulatory for his parents, and a group of teachers and administrators suggested to them that a career in science and math should be encouraged.
That Christmas, Santa Claus gifted Doucet with a microscope, an item not listed on the third-grader's wish list. Following the holiday, the return to school was traumatic. "I was marked from then on. I was the science kid." Four years later, however, his career path took on a decidedly new dimension: His father passed away, a victim of heart damage lingering from an early-adulthood episode of rheumatic fever. Suddenly, Doucet realized the ulterior motive for the unexpected Christmas gift.
With continuing encouragement from his widowed mother, as well as mentoring from proud science teachers, he pursued science projects focused on medical issues throughout his remaining years of secondary school. With these projects, he represented Louisiana at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, the Westinghouse National Science Talent Search, and the International Science and Engineering Fair. By the time of his graduation from South Lafourche High School, he had accrued several community-based scholarships, sufficient to undertake a college education in the sciences. Thus, he became one of a large population from southeastern Louisiana who were first-generation college students.
Doucet earned the bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux and the doctoral degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from LSU Medical Center in New Orleans. For his research and service at the medical center, he was awarded the Chancellor's Award as the outstanding student.
Following this education, he was faced with opportunities for postdoctoral research worldwide. However, "the decision was an easy one," says Doucet. Assuming an obligation to serve the southern Louisiana community that had sent him through college and beyond, Doucet elected to join the Acadian genetics effort spearheaded by researchers at the medical institutions in the New Orleans region. On a fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health, he enjoyed the privilege of training under human geneticist Dr. Bronya Keats and molecular geneticist Dr. Prescott Deininger.
One day late in his postdoctoral fellowship, he received several phone calls from interested persons in his home parish alerting him of a faculty opening in the biology department of his alma mater, Nicholls State University. The ensuing deliberation was short-lived: "The opportunity to serve the region where I was born and raised was too perfect to pass up." At Nicholls, Doucet continues his genetic research on the Acadian and other indigenous Louisiana populations, while teaching the next generation of genetic healthcare providers.
Although Doucet's early education was driven by endeavors in the sciences, it was not exclusively so. Fortunately, he was student to exceptional Language Arts teachers as well, who recognized and nurtured an exceptional aptitude for composition. One long-time teacher, in particular, had recognized such aptitude an earlier student - Dora Rebstock, Doucet's mother, who was valedictorian of her graduating class at Golden Meadow High School in 1948. "A good example of the interaction of genetics and environment," Doucet remarks. These days, Doucet is recognized as one of Louisiana's premiere playwrights, having won several critical awards for his dramatized recreations of Acadian history and Cajun culture.
An Acadian who is also a researcher of the Acadians,
Doucet reflects on his role in the southern Louisiana
community. "With plays and with genetics outreach,
the descendants of this long-historied people are
so appreciative that someone has taken up their
stories and that someone has taken up their cause.
What they don't immediately realize is that writers
and geneticists alike have just as much appreciation
for them." Indeed, genes for Usher syndrome,
Friedreich ataxia, and other inherited diseases
were discovered using samples from Louisiana Acadian
people. Doucet is proud: "Given our history
of exile and displacement and isolation, generations
of Acadian descendants should have little reason
to trust other peoples. Yet we do. And, importantly,
we trust genetic scientists. And by trusting geneticists,
we help people around the world understand those
same genetic disorders that run in our own families.
For this reason alone, I think that Acadians are
the most selfless people on earth."
Bronya J. B. Keats, Ph.D.
is a Professor and Head of the Department of Genetics,
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center,
New Orleans, LA. She is also the Director of the
Molecular and Human Genetics Center of Excellence,
one component of which is the Center for Acadiana
Genetics and Hereditary Health Care.
"Evolution"
By Judy LaBorde
How we evolve. How we grow. The compelling life force in which we use the talents and abilities given at birth to mold and stretch into the person we become. We make hard choices, face many obstacles, sometimes wishing the journey could be easier.
The evolution of Bronya Keats began in Australia, a country the size of America but with 1/10th the population. Australia is known for its rugged and remote "outback" region that occupies the huge center of the continent. Bronya, however, lived in the comfortable setting of suburban Adelaide, a coastal town where her father was professor of mathematics at Adelaide University, and her mother was an elementary school teacher.
With her good mind and good health, Bronya had great potential; her parents were determined to develop it. "Dad expected me to follow his guidance. Science and math were important subjects. If I did well in those, he thought I could do anything. My parents gave me every opportunity to learn and pushed me again and again to take advantage of these opportunities."
In addition to a grueling academic schedule, there were lessons in tennis, swimming, dance, piano, track and field, "I had lessons in everything!”
She mastered algebra and calculus in the classroom and excelled on the tennis court and hockey field. However, she knew little about the science of biology; it was considered a lesser discipline at her school.
All that changed in 1965 when her 10th grade class took a field trip to Adelaide University. "There we were, in this large classroom, the walls covered with displays and posters all related to biology. One stood out, the one on genetics, explaining Mendel's laws." Gregor Mendel was a 17th century Austrian monk who derived the first scientific laws of inheritance from the results of his experiments in cross-pollinating peas. He is viewed by many as the father of genetics. "Mendel's Peas" are often found in the first chapter of textbooks on genetics.
"This fascinated me. I saw how genes were inherited, how probability was involved. It was the first time I appreciated biology as a precise science. It occurred to me that was something my father would encourage as a field of study. So, at age 14, I was convinced that genetics was what I would do with my life,"
Three years later she took her first formal genetics course at the Australian National University, beginning with fruit flies and corn and moving on to human genetics for her doctoral dissertation which focused on Aboriginals, the native population of Australia whose origins go back 50,000 years. She was interested in studying genetic variation in this population. So, she packed her bags and headed for the State of Queensland where she lived on an outback settlement of 200 people with no roads, running water or flushing toilets. The wooden houses were primitive and the air was hot and humid. "The tribal leader would direct the people to be at the clinic at a certain time to participate in my research. The work was fascinating but it was not clear that I had helped anyone. I wanted to do something to help treat genetic diseases."
The story of how she got her wish accelerated with her arrival in Louisiana in 1982, with her husband, Dr. Joe Gettrust, and 15-month old son, Patrick. Joe, a geophysicist, had been offered a position at the Stennis Naval Research Lab in Mississippi. She was offered a position on the faculty of LSU Health Sciences Center. Dr. Mary Kay Pelias, another member of the faculty, introduced her to the Acadian people of Louisiana.
"I met Betty LeBlanc, the mother of three children with Friedreich ataxia. Acadians are very caring people; they go out of their way to be helpful. I could not have done my research without Betty's help. She made it happen.
"My research among the Acadians gave me my first opportunity to work directly with families with genetic disease. Until I came face to face with these families, saw their children in wheelchairs, the family in pain . . . my caring side had not been tested.
"All of this has given me an appreciation of the impact of scientific discoveries on people affected by genetic disorders and how critical it is to help them understand what these advances can mean. I consider this educational component essential. As scientists, we must explain to the public what we are doing, and in return, they may be more likely to support funding for research.
"For me, nothing is more heartwarming than seeing the light go on in somebody's eyes and hearing them say, 'thank you for spending time with me and answering my questions - now I understand.”
At the peak of her career, at the top of her form, the evolution of Bronya Keats continues.
About the Editorial Review Board
John Doucet, Ph.D., is a molecular geneticist at Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana.
Brian Jakes is Chief Executive Officer of the Louisiana Area Health Education Centers.
Bronya Keats, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care and Chair of the Department of Genetics at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Judy LaBorde is Administrative Coordinator for the Center for Acadiana Genetics and Hereditary Health Care.
Yves Lacassie, M.D., is Chief of the Genetics Section in the Department of Pediatrics at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Charles Myers, M.S.W., is Director of the Louisiana Genetic Diseases Program in the Office of Public Health.
Alan Robson, M.D., is Medical Director of Children's Hospital in New Orleans.
Jess Thoene, M.D., is Director of the Genetics Program at the Tulane University Medical Center.
Genetics and Louisiana Families was created and is maintained for educational purposes only.
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How to Cite Genetics and Louisiana Families
Genetics and Louisiana Families contains many reviews of genetics topics that may be suitable as references supporting other works. The following are examples of suggested formats for citing specific chapters in Genetics and Louisiana Families. Consider the chapter, "The Genetics of Cancer," by Dr. Jay Hunt:
American Psychological Association (APA) Style
Hunt, J. (2002) The genetics of cancer. In J. Doucet and B. Keats (Eds.), Genetics and Louisiana Families. [On-line.] Available: http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/centers/genetics/LouisianaFamilies.
Council of Biological Editors (CBE) Style
Hunt, J. The genetics of cancer. In:
Doucet, J. and Keats, B, eds. Genetics and Louisiana
Families. 2002. [On-line.] Available: http://www.lsuhsc.edu/no/centers/genetics/LouisianaFamilies.
The Editors and the Editorial Review Board of Genetics and Louisiana Families hereby acknowledge individuals and groups without whom the success and usefulness of this web site would not be possible:
Dr. Carl Brasseaux, of the Center for Acadian Studies at the University of Louisiana - Lafayette, for directing us to vintage photographs of historic Acadiana and its peoples
The German-Acadian Coast Historical and Genealogical Society and the St. James Historical Society for directing us to vintage photographs of historic Acadiana and its peoples
Nicholls State University for service and management of electronic communication between the Editors and contributors
The students of Genetics and Scientific Writing classes at Nicholls State University for their editorial assistance and suggestions
The archival photos used on this web page were made available by the German-Acadian Coast Historical and Genealogical Society, by the St. James Historical Society, and by Dr. Carl Brasseaux of the Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. These photos vividly capture the times and the spirit of the people of Louisiana, and we are deeply grateful for the privilege of using them.
The archival photos in Genetics and Louisiana Families are used to honor of the ancestors of southern Louisiana--the way they worked, the way they shared life's joys, the way they cared for their families. Genetics and Louisiana Families neither implies nor assumes that any person appearing in these photos is a carrier of or is affected by a genetic disorder. Further, Genetics and Louisiana Families neither implies nor assumes that any descendant of persons appearing in these photos is a carrier of or is affected by a genetic disorder.
Where to Send Corrections and Suggestions
Any corrections to, omissions from, additions to, or comments about Genetics and Louisiana Families can be sent by e-mail to the Editors at heredheal@nicholls.edu and jlabor@lsuhsc.edu.