IndiGen Project

WHY IN NEWS?

In an indigenous genetic mapping effort, nearly 1000 rural youth from across India will have their genomes sequenced by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).  

IndiGen PROJECT

• The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched an ambitious project ‘IndiGen’ to sequence whole genomes of diverse ethnic Indian population to develop public health technology applications.
• The sequencing of 1,008 Indian genomes as part of the project was announced in 2018,. It aims to complete sequencing of at least 10,000 Indian genomes over the next three years.
• Whole-genome sequencing is the decoding of the entire DNA present in the human cell.
• This data can be analysed to understand the function of various genes, identify genetic mutations and explore how the mutations impact gene functions.
• Genetic mutations underlie many diseases including congenital conditions like thalassemia and diseases like cancer. Thus, deciphering a person’s DNA can reveal information about that person’s health and susceptibility to diseases.
• Also, analysing DNA data of human population can reveal population-level predispositions to diseases.
• The IndiGen project is India’s first step in collating such a national database of its citizens.