Genetic information will have the potential to provide rapid and accurate diagnoses, as well as reduce the risk of disease. And so you can participate.
TecSalud, from Tec de Monterrey, launched the oriGen project, an initiative to learn about the Mexican genome and decipher the components of our DNA associated with the diseases that most afflict us.
How will it be achieved? Over the next few years, TecSalud together with the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN) will analyze DNA samples from 100,000 Mexicans, something unprecedented in Latin America.
“The collective information will allow us to find real solutions to the most important health problems in Mexico,” said during the presentation, Guillermo Torre, rector of TecSalud and vice president of research at Tec de Monterrey.
The genetic information database that will result from the project will have the potential to provide rapid and accurate diagnoses, as well as reduce the risk of disease.
oriGen seeks 100,000 Mexicans
The project will have four recruitment stages, the same number of years in which reception will increase in various regions of the country.
“OriGen is a great collaborative project; It is not a Tec or INMEGEN project, it is actually Mexican volunteers with whom we are going to contribute to generating new knowledge, ”Torre highlighted.
The recruitment of participants will be carried out as follows:
2021-2022: 5,000 volunteers
2022-2023: 15,000 volunteers
2023-2024: 30,000 volunteers
2024-2025: 50,000 volunteersIt may interest you: Martec, the Tec laboratory that tracks Covid-19, and everyone wants
The first in Latin America
The oriGen project is one of the largest genomic sequencing initiatives in Latin America and the first on this scale to be carried out in the country, said Víctor Treviño, research professor at the School of Medicine and head of bioinformatics at oriGen.
“There are no studies of this type and of this size in the Latin American population. The existing jobs are from Mexicans or Latinos who have enrolled in US and European projects. Similar studies are available in the rest of the world, but Latin Americans are underrepresented, in such a way that the genetic content and its association with diseases in Mexico is going to be something totally new ”, commented Gerardo García, director of Translational Research at TecSalud.
On her part, Elena González, project leader, highlighted the effort to advance in Mexico in this type of large-scale studies.
“In INMEGEN the expertise, so we have created and consolidated committees for each of the processes involved in this protocol. Together we have the need and the obligation to create a research committee for other projects that want to use the information ”, explained González.
Source: Tec Review
