54gene, a health-tech company dedicated to improving African genomics research for better global health outcomes has announced the completion of its first consortium-led publication on over 100,000 Nigerians as commissioned in 2020 at its launch. This was achieved in partnership with its non-profit initiative, the African Centre for Translational Genetics (ACTG).
For the purpose of bringing precision medicine to Africans, they established the Non-Communicable Diseases Genetic Heritage Study (NCD-GHS) consortium, a group of scientists and global genomic leaders.
“The consortium, which is made up of scientists from 54gene, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, and the Center for Genomics Research and Innovation at the National Biotechnology Development Agency as well as researchers from multiple academic institutions in Nigeria and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is built on a shared vision of positioning African populations to benefit from advances in genomic science.”
How Does This Work?
According to a recent study published in Nature Genetics, it is critical that African scientists be at the helm of genomes research and that genomics data be made available and accessible to all researchers.
“Report from the paper says, as of January 2019, approximately 3% of genomic data being used for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) came from people of African descent, with this statistic dropping to 1.1% in 2021”
Health Improvement Methods
The report describes efforts to create a valuable resource that could help African populations greatly benefit from worldwide efforts to achieve precision treatment for diverse ailments.
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One of the ways to do this is by putting up a catalog of human genetic diversity, which includes a detailed look at the characteristics of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) among 100,000 persons from Nigeria, in order to understand the genetic foundation of the most common illnesses. Approximately 71% of all fatalities occur as a result of NCDs, which affect more than 41 million people worldwide each year. NCDs are expected to overtake infectious diseases as the most common cause of death in Africa by the year 2030.
The Studied Population
The study looks at the whole Nigerian population. It uses data from the country’s 6 geopolitical zones and samples from the majority of its more than 200 ethnolinguistic groups. Ethically consulted participants come from two groups: disease cases recruited from disease specialist clinics and community cases, which are people with diseases they didn’t know they had when they joined the study. These people were found through household surveys in their communities.
Noncommunicable diseases (NCD) in Nigeria will also be assessed, and the genetic basis of these diseases will be investigated across the country’s many ethnic groups. Because Nigeria is home to more than 200 ethnic groups and 25% of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa, this data set offers an outstanding representation of genetic diversity on the continent.
54gene View On Their Achievement
In affirmation of the completion, 54gene Founder and CEO, Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, affirmed, “Along with our partners, we are proud to be leading the new frontier of African genomics. Precision medicine goes against the one-size-fits-all approach to disease treatment as it is more inclusive, with people treated on their unique genetic makeup. With more than 200 ethnic groups and 500 different languages, Nigeria has one of the most diverse ethnolinguistic concentrations in the world.
This pioneering study from the Nigerian population provides an excellent window into the representation of diversity across Africa. With recruitment nearly complete and the commencement of data generation and bioinformatics analysis, we are excited at how this study makes the promise of precision medicine more attainable to Nigerians, Africans and the global population.
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Dr. Segun Fatumo, co-lead NCD-GHS and the first author of the landmark paper said, “I am so proud of what NCD-GHS has achieved in only about two years. In our own eyes, 100K genomes of Africa are emerging from more than 300 diverse ethnic groups in Nigeria. The current lack of genomic diversity has resulted in significant missed scientific and medical opportunities, but NCD-GHS strategic vision to drive new large-scale studies with rich African genome datasets would help fill some gaps.
I am deeply honored to be a co-lead of this initiative. The NCD-GHS’s public-private partnership with 54gene pioneers a model to increase diversity in genomic studies, including capacity building and plan to develop more genomic leaders in Africa.”