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East Asians, people of Chinese, Japanese and/or Korean descent are light skinned people just as people of European descent are light skinned, but skin cancer rates vary widely. Europeans have 10 to 20 times higher rates of melanoma than Africans. However, despite also having lighter skin, East Asians have the same melanoma rates as Africans.

The reason for this difference can only be explained when the gene mutations for both groups are found. Understanding the differences could lead to a better way to protect people from skin cancer.

"By finding the differences, we have the potential to find ways to make people with the European ancestry genes less susceptible to skin cancer," said Cheng, professor of pathology.

This is a challenge, because to find the unidentified mutations, researchers must study a population that includes a blend of original African ancestry and East Asian ancestry, with little European contribution.

The Senoi, one of three indigenous tribes from Peninsular Malaysia, meet this condition. The Senoi are believed to include ancestry of a dark-skinned tribe called the Negrito, and a regional Mongoloid population of Indo-China, such as the Proto-Malay. Since the skin color of the Senoi is darker than that of Northeast Asians, researchers will be able to focus on finding the primary genetic mutation of light skin color in Asians without seeing further skin lightening mutations.

Researchers will now map genes in the DNA using the collected samples to identify which might be responsible for the skin color of East Asians. In the Cheng lab, the candidate genes and mutations can then be tested in zebrafish for verification.

However, researchers fear that time may be running out for their research since populations are becoming more racially mixed and finding DNA samples from unaltered gene pools become increasingly harder to locate.