Joseph Yracheta, MS

I am building a career in Pharmacogenomics and Environmental Forensics using the cutting edge tools of Omics. I place an emphasis on American Indian and Latin Indigenous Public Health and Bioethics of research in Indigenous communities to highlight and transform the socio-economic injustice and health disparity in the Amerindigenous of the Western Hemisphere and Polynesia . I have taught STEM courses at various reservation high schools in South Dakota. I graduated from Loyola University-Chicago in 1993 with a B.S. in Psychology, but also had over 28 credit hours in Biology.

In my research, I am attempting to ameliorate loss due to a health care model designed for a different population. The disease types, prevalence and survival rates are different for Native Americans. Moreover, the drug therapies are optimized for an enzyme profile other than people of the Americas. One common story among the Indigenous of the Americas is one where an elder enters the ER on the weekend and is expedited through the overtaxed system and sent home with a prescription. Upon taking the medication, the elder worsens and returns to the ER and is met with the response, “Sorry Mam, it sometimes takes a while to feel better, go home and keep taking them over the weekend and see me on Monday.” Monday never comes. Once again, a victim to their genes and historical trauma, another Native American person is lost. This is what motivates me. This is why I do what I do in the field of Pharmacogenomics & Environmental Forensics.