Database of genomic variants for population completed in Vietnam

Vingroup Big Data Institute (VinBigData) announced that it had completed the project on the Database of Genomic Variants for the Vietnamese Population.

With more than 1,000 genomes sequenced and over 40 million variants discovered, the research will lay the foundation for biomedical and precision medicine development, contributing to giving early treatment to each Vietnamese individual in the future.

The database, the first of its kind, also has enough annotations about biological functions and pathological risks.

Prof Ta Thanh Van, chairman of the Council of Hanoi Medical University, said the database would provide an invaluable reference to improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment in the country.

Launched in December 2018, the project drew the participation of over 40 scientists from leading universities and units worldwide as well as hundreds of experts and volunteers at home and abroad.

During the three years, they sequenced the genomes of over 1,000 unrelated adults aged 35 to 55 and discovered more than 40 million genetic variants.

Nearly two million of them were representative of the Vietnamese population.

The process was carried out at a lab meeting ISO 15189 standards at Vinmec International General Hospital, using advanced technologies by Google, Illumina and NVIDIA.

Part of the database is now available at genome.vinbigdata.org.

Several hi-speed analysis tools are also offered on trial at the site.

The pioneering project cost over US$4.5mil (RM18.9mil), the largest scale in Vietnam for such a project so far. — Vietnam News/ANN