GenomeIndia: Cataloguing the genetic variations in Indians

Human genome mapping studies have shown that there are substantial differences in genomes of the populations across the world. The most commonly represented Caucasian genome diverged from the Indian population over 30-50 thousand years ago. Furthermore, unlike homogeneous Caucasian populations, the Indian population is very heterogeneous with over 4,500 genetically distinct subpopulations. The aim of the ‘GenomeIndia: Cataloguing the Genetic Variation in Indians’ project is to do whole genome sequencing (WGS) for 10,000 healthy individuals of the country’s diverse populace. This project will generate a unique dataset which will catalogue the unique variations of representative population groups across the country to create a catalogue of genomic variants for Indians.

The project will help in cataloguing the common as well as low-frequency genetic variations in the Indian population, along with a comprehensive understanding of the copy number variations specific to our population and thus facilitate future large-scale genome-wide association studies for researchers across India. This project is jointly run with Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering (IBSE) and Robert Bosch Center for Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI).