Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Indian Genome Variation project

Here is the link to the Telegraph report on the India Genome Variation (IGV) project. Some excerpts:

The Indian Genome Variation (IGV) project analysed 75 genes from 1,871 people drawn from 55 diverse caste, religious and tribal communities. Scientists also expect the project to throw light on how genes influence diseases, susceptibility to infections, and response to medicines.

The study by a consortium of six Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories and the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, has provided the strongest genetic evidence yet to suggest that several populations have intermingled in India over the centuries. ...
The scientists consider some of the findings about genetic proximity and disease risk data as so sensitive that they have decided not to make the identities of the communities public — for now. ...

The analysis has also indicated that Kashmiri Pandits and Kashmiri Muslims are genetically similar and share genetic similarities with Dravidian groups. It has also shown that some Dravidian-speaking population groups in south India have Indo-European lineage.
Here is the link to the research paper, published in the journal Human Genetics. In my university, I have access to this journal. However, it might be behind a paywall in other places. The link to the project home is over here. I probably should have a follow up post on this later on.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is good to know that something has come out on Indian genome—also happy to note the Prof Bramhachari’s comments. But according to me we should not expect anything more out of this. It is very difficult to have some outcome from such genetic studies individually. We need many people to work together to solve such a big puzzle. Being an active researcher I know there will be many important contributors behind it who will be buried in somewhere as some of them want to enjoy the cake themselves only. And hence, death so such a promising project happens—not for any other reason.

Pratik Ray said...

Being an active researcher I know there will be many important contributors behind it who will be buried in somewhere as some of them want to enjoy the cake themselves only. And hence, death so such a promising project happens—not for any other reason.

That is sad indeed.

I hope the IGV (or any other such project) does manage to get larger participation.

The other thing that strikes me is, for a country as large as India, the sample set is particularly small. I wonder whether some of the statistical organization that work for the government can be convinced to participate in it. I am told that the Indian Statistical Survey has some of the best resources in the world to carry out such surveys, although unfortunately, their full capacities are never being utilized.