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For the First Time, India Has a Genome Database. But Are We Ready to Use It?

The IndiGen Genome Project, launched in April 2019, is a government-funded exercise that sequenced more than a thousand individuals from diverse ethnicities to create a genome database for India.

by Shruti Sharma

published by

Print

on November 22, 2019

Source: Print

For the first time ever, we have a gene database just for Indians.

The IndiGen Genome Project, launched in April this year, is a government-funded exercise that sequenced more than a thousand individuals from diverse ethnicities to create a genome database for India.

Since most of the globally available genetic tests have been developed using data of Caucasian populations, this indigenous genetic mapping exercise might improve our ability to diagnose, prevent, and treat diseases specific to the Indian population.

But is India, which will see the Personal Data Protection Bill being tabled in Parliament this winter session, ready?

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This article was originally published in ThePrint.

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