Largest gene database of Indians soon


Medgenome teams up with consortium that has committed to sequence 1 lakh Asian genomes

In a step to create one of the largest repositories of Indian genomes, Bangalore-based Medgenome has teamed up with a southeast Asian consortium that has committed to sequence 100,000 Asian genomes. Were it to work to plan this could mean a consolidated storehouse of at least 30,000 Indian genomes and could help understand the wide genetic variety in India’s various ethnic groups and midwife customized medications for cancer and heart disease as well as identify possible new genetic aberrations that cause untreatable diseases.

Ever since the human genome was first sequenced in 2003, meaning, that the entire DNA pattern in the cell that lends people their unique identity was deciphered, several countries have announced initiatives to map genomes of their resident populations. The so-called 1000 Genomes project is a collection of gene samples from across the world to capture the variety of genes that are typical to different population groups. The United Kingdom announced a plan in 2014 to create a bank of 100,000 genomes in the nation and 100,000 Asia genomes project—called GenomeAsia 100K-- echoes similar ambitions..............Read more

 

Source: The Hindu


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