Objectives
To establish a high quality Iranian reference genome.
To generate knowledge that can support the development of personalized treatment based on genomic information, in the health care system.
To generate knowledge that can be applied to the Iranian pharmaceutical and food industries.
Project description
Genomic references are important and fundamental tools because they facilitate analyses of individual patients and their genes, including how hereditary disorders arise. Genomic references also enhance less thorough genetic analytical methods that do not provide data from the entire genome.
The project aims to maps the genomes of 1163 Iranian from 8 different ethnicities selected from 15,000 well ChIPtyped attendance of Tehran cardiometabolic genetic study (TCGS) to represent the normal citizens to examine which variations can be observed in the Iranian genetic material.
In this case, the definition of Iranian descent is strictly a scientific prerequisite of the project, since the reference genome must be based on a homogeneous population.
Tehran lipid and glucose study (TLGS), the parent of TCGS is a family-based longitudinal cohort study; therefore, information on the family-based genetic structure of more than 15000 people will help the more accurate picture of Iranian genome. The reference will help to determine the structure and development history of the Iranian genome and serve as a tool for research and development of genomics and public health.
The sampling of the TLGS study was based on householders and their household members. Some of them probably have relatives and common ancestral within other individuals among the TLGS population. Selecting unrelated samples in assessing and performing GWAS is one of the primary issues in case-control studies. With the assist of ChIPtyped data, we would have the power to assess the family structure and find if they have another relative in the population or not. Lastly, having the Population stratification, Family structures and relatives can help us to reduce the bias in the study and have well interpretation of the results.
In the future, it is expected that it will be possible to exploit genomic information generally in the healthcare system via large genomics data sets from many individuals consisting and new bioinformatics methods. Establishing an Iranian reference genome is an important step in the development of a far more individualized diagnosing and treatment process.