The aim of this project is to facilitate the acquisition of biosamples from African American children with JIA in the current registry. While multiple studies have demonstrated phenotypic differences between African American children with JIA and those of European descent [ 1, 2 ], the biological basis for these differences remains unknown. While it would be naïve to assume that these differences are entirely driven by genetics [ 3 ], it is reasonable to assume there are important, ancestry-specific genetic differences at play, as other groups have found with systemic lupus [ 4 ], rheumatoid arthritis [ 5 ] and inflammatory bowel disease [ 6 ].