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University of Colorado Vitiligo Genetics Project

Participants Needed

Many of you are aware of our longstanding vitiligo genetics research project, and we thank the over 4000 of you who have already taken part.  Thanks to you, we have already discovered more than 20 genes involving in causing vitiligo, revolutionizing understanding of vitiligo as an autoimmune disease and opening up new avenues of investigation that may lead to future treatments. Our findings have been published in major medical and scientific journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, and others.

Nevertheless, these findings just scratch the surface, giving us only a fragmentary view of vitiligo biology. To discover additional vitiligo genes and thus more completely understand vitiligo biology, we want to double the size of our study. That means we need YOU to take part.  Everything is done by mail, at our expense, and no blood draw is necessary. If you want to help cure vitiligo, please participate now.

Though we have participating sites around the world, this phase of the research is only open to Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic-Latino patients in the USA and Canada.  Please do not volunteer if you are not eligible and, if you do volunteer, please complete your participation by returning the study materials we will send you, which are quite expensive.

If you have never participated in our studies before, and are willing to do so now, please download and fill out our Study Entry Questionnaire, which you can obtain here:  VItiligo Study Questionnaire. This is a MS Word document, so you must save it to your local computer, fill it out, save it again, and return it to me via mail or email attachment at richard.spritz@ucdenver.edu.  All information is kept strictly confidential; your data and identity are protected to our fullest ability.

Thanks to all of you who have already participated, and thanks in advance to those of you who have never taken part and decide to do so now.  We cannot do this without your help.

Richard A. Spritz, M.D.

Professor and Director, Human Medical Genetics Program, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 12800 E. 19th Ave., RC1N, MS8300, Aurora, CO 80045 USA