Genome India Project

The building block of mapping life,  Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA), contains the genetic code of every organism. When James Watson and Francis Crick discovered that DNA is structured as a “double helix” in 1953, it sparked the lengthy, ongoing effort to understand how genes govern life’s qualities and what causes diseases. An organism’s whole DNA collection, containing all of its genes, is referred to as a genome. A genome is a collection of all the genetic material necessary to create and sustain a certain organism. All cells with a nucleus include a copy of the human genome, which contains more than 3 billion DNA base pairs. 

Hasn’t the human genome been mapped before?

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was a worldwide effort to decode the human genome. According to others, it was “one of the greatest exploratory feats of all time. For the HGP, rather than a trip to see the world, experts from all across the world worked together to sequence and improve the mapping life of the entire human genome, which is collectively known as the “genome.”

HGP began on October 1, 1990, and finished in April 2003, allowing us to read nature’s whole genetic blueprint for producing a human being for the first time.

What then is the ‘Genome India’ Project?

Approximately 20 different institutions are working together to gather samples, perform computations, and conduct research, all under the direction of Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science’s Centre for Brain Research. Its ultimate goal is to establish a “reference genome” for the Indian population, which will allow researchers to better understand the range of diseases and features seen in the country’s diverse population. It’s possible to help public health by making regional interventions to combat a specific disease, for example, if it’s seen in the Northeast.

What are the challenges involved?

Medical Ethics – Gene modification is not a stated goal of a project that solely attempts to build a database of genetic information. However, this has been a highly divisive issue around the world. If this kind of information is available, the temptation to “intervene” may be considerably greater, even if one is not completely aware of the accompanying risks. Most recently, a Shenzhen-based scientist who helped develop the world’s first gene-edited babies was sentenced to three years in prison for his involvement in the project. Announcing in 2018 that twin daughters had been born with HIV-resistant DNA, He Jiankui stunned the world. CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique was used before their birth, he alleged.

Data & Storage – After the sample was collected, questions about the data’s confidentiality and probable usage and misuse would have to be addressed. It’s difficult to keep data in the cloud because it raises questions about who owns the data. Until a Data Privacy Bill with adequate safeguards is passed in the Ministry of Science and Technology, nothing will change. Attempting to launch a Genome India Project before the issue of privacy is resolved could result in further issues.

Social Issues – For millennia, civilizations have wrestled with the question of inheritance, racial purity, and genetic classification, and more scientific studies of genes could further perpetuate prejudices and allow politics and history to take on an ethnic flavour.

In India, a lot of politics currently revolves around the question of which individuals are “indigenous” and which are not. The cauldron could be enriched by a Genome India Project.

Since the dawn of time, and long before the discovery of DNA, the concept of “selective breeding” has sparked debate. However, eugenics took on a deadly context once the Nazis debated the subject extensively and brought up the subject during the Nuremberg trials. It’s been a sensitive topic since World War II.

Whole Mapping life genome sequencing has several advantages.

• It provides a detailed, base-by-base image of the genome at great resolution.
• It captures both large and small variants that could otherwise be missed using targeted approaches to variant detection.
• This method identifies probable causal variations that might be used in additional gene expression and regulation research.
• Delivers vast amounts of data in a short period of time to assist in the assembly of novel genomes
• When a person’s whole genome sequencing data is analysed, it can be determined whether or not they possess genes for certain single genetic illnesses (caused due to mutation). This will contribute to the dawning of a new era of individualised medicine.

Conclusion

New efficiency in health, agriculture, and the life sciences will be made possible by the Genome India Project, a collaboration of 20 universities that includes the Indian Institute of Science as well as certain IITs for mapping life. Its ultimate goal is to create a grid of the Indian “reference genome,” which will allow researchers to better understand the types and nature of diseases and features that affect the country’s diverse population.

After gathering 10,000 samples from throughout India in the first phase, the massive project wants to construct a grid to arrive at a genome that is representative of the entire country.