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As a little Hawaiian, my mom and auntie always told me stories about Kalaupapa
在我還是一個年幼的夏威夷人時，我的母親和姑姑經(jīng)常跟我講關(guān)于卡勞帕帕的故事，
the Hawaiian leper colony surrounded by the highest sea cliffs in the world
那個地方充滿夏威夷的麻風(fēng)病患者，被世界上最高的懸崖包圍。
and Father Damien, the Belgian missionary who gave his life for the Hawaiian community.
還有為夏威夷社區(qū)奉獻(xiàn)一生的比利時傳教士--達(dá)米安神父的故事。
As a young nurse, my aunt trained the nuns caring for the remaining lepers almost a 100 years after Father Damien died of leprosy.
我的姑姑，作為一名年輕的護(hù)士，在達(dá)米安神父死于麻風(fēng)病近一百年后，訓(xùn)練修女們照顧剩下的麻風(fēng)病患者。
I remember stories she told about traveling down switchback cliff paths on a mule,
我依舊記得她講述的故事：她和我的叔叔騎著騾子穿行在高低起伏的懸崖小路上，
while my uncle played her favorite hula songs on the ukulele all the way down to Kalaupapa.
我的叔叔用尤克里里琴彈奏她最喜歡的夏威夷歌曲，直到到達(dá)卡勞帕帕。
You see, as a youngster, I was always curious about a few things.
作為一個兒童，我一直對一些事情感到好奇。
First was why a Belgian missionary chose to live in complete isolation in Kalaupapa,
首先，為什么一個比利時傳教士要選擇在卡勞帕帕住著與世隔絕的生活，
knowing he would inevitably contract leprosy from the community of people he sought to help.
并且不可避免會從他幫助的社區(qū)里的人們那里傳染到麻風(fēng)病。
And secondly, where did the leprosy bacteria come from?
還有，卡勞帕帕的麻風(fēng)病菌是哪里來的？
And why were Kānaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawaii, so susceptible to developing leprosy, or "mai Pake?"
為什么夏威夷的土著居民如此容易受到麻風(fēng)病的感染？
This got my curious about what makes us unique as Hawaiians -- namely, our genetic makeup.
這讓我好奇是什么讓我們夏威夷人不同？答案就是我們的基因。
But it wasn't until high school, through the Human Genome Project,
但是直到高中，通過一個人類基因組的項(xiàng)目，
that I realized I wasn't alone in trying to connect our unique genetic ancestry to our potential health, wellness and illness.
我才發(fā)現(xiàn)我并不是唯一一個想要追溯我們特有的基因祖先，為了了解我們的潛在健康和疾病。
You see, the 2.7 billion-dollar project promised an era of predictive and preventative medicine based on our unique genetic makeup.
要知道，這個27億美元的計(jì)劃在研究我們特有基因的基礎(chǔ)上保證了一個可預(yù)測，可預(yù)防的醫(yī)療時代。
So to me it always seemed obvious that in order to achieve this dream,
顯而易見，為了要完成這一個夢想，
we would need to sequence a diverse cohort of people to obtain the full spectrum of human genetic variation on the planet.
我們需要排列一群不同的人來取得地球上變化多樣的人類基因的遺傳譜。
That's why 10 years later, it continues to shock me,
這就是為什么10年后，我不斷被驚訝，
knowing that 96 percent of genome studies associating common genetic variation with specific diseases
發(fā)現(xiàn)96%與特定疾病有關(guān)的基因多樣性的實(shí)驗(yàn)
have focused exclusively on individuals of European ancestry.
都只研究了祖先是歐洲人的人群。
