funded by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India
The instruction manual for our life, the human genome, comprises the basic structural unit of DNA, represented by four letters A, C, G, and T stretched over three billion such letters. About 0.1 % of the entire sequence differs between any two individuals on average, thus creating variations in the genetic code among individuals. These genetic variations among individuals are crucial for understanding our disease predispositions and rare inherited disorders. They determine our response to drugs and help track migration and evolutionary patterns of population groups.
Populations across the world differ in their genetic makeup and environmental influences. Therefore, it is important to examine the risk factors for complex genetic diseases and rare genetic variations contributing to specific disorders in population-specific studies.
The Indian population of 1.3 billion consists of >4600 population groups, and several thousand of them are endogamous. These factors have contributed to the genetic diversity of the current-day Indian population. Thus, the Indian population harbors distinct variations and often many disease-causing mutations are amplified within some of these groups. Therefore, findings from population-based or disease-based human genetics research from other populations of the world cannot be extrapolated to Indians. The GenomeIndia endeavor is complex, yet much needed to understand our nation’s genetic makeup.
This is a national project funded by the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and spearheaded by CBR. The project aims to identify genetic variations through whole genome sequencing of 10,000 representative individuals across India in the first phase of the study. The 20 national institutes across the country that form the working consortium are represented below.
Please look up https://genomeindia.in for a detailed overview and status update on this Pan-India project.
Last Updated on June 17, 2024
