The genetic research projects below are funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the State Department of Education, as well as many private foundations including the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Deafness Research Foundation, the National Organization for Hearing Research, the Oberkotter Foundation, the Lions Eye Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia Society, and the Marriott Foundation. LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans faculty bring in over $2,000,000 per year in funding for genetic research.

Ongoing projects include:

• Identification and characterization of disease genes for Usher syndrome, Friedreich ataxia, hearing impairment, eye disorders, and craniofacial anomalies in the Acadian population
• Development of gene-based therapies for diabetes, cancer, and cystic fibrosis
• Determination of the contribution of interspersed DNA repeated sequences to human variation, genome instability, and disease
• Examination of legal and ethical issues that arise from genetic knowledge
• Phenotypic characterization of carriers of mutations that are associated with hearing impairment
• Genetic epidemiologic studies of cancer
• Mutational analyses in mitochondrial disorders
• Funding for Genetic Research