Significant insights gained from population-scale genomic studies, based on the knowledge of genetic variation and disease causation, will help to enable a new reality of personalized medicine and treatment.

The ability to sequence whole genomes quickly and economically is driving interest in population-scale sequencing efforts that can reveal meaningful insights on a much more systematic basis than previous approaches. A range of large initiatives announced recently are prime examples of the trend in population sequencing, including industry programs by Regeneron and Human Longevity, and the 100,000 Genomes Project by Genomics England. Perhaps better than any other effort since the founding of deCODE in Iceland, the establishment of a high-throughput Genomics Center at Sidra Medical and Research Center in Qatar embodies the movement toward these types of population studies. The eventual goal of the project is to sequence the entire Qatari population of some 300,000 people. But from the beginning, the Sidra facility will help advance genetic mapping projects, including the creation of Arab consensus genome to obtain a better understanding of genetic variants that influence health across Arab populations and, indeed, beyond. In addition to these efforts, the center will focus on uncovering the causes of rare genetic diseases. The significant insights that can be gained from population-scale studies, based on the knowledge of genetic variation and disease causation, will help to enable a new reality of personalized medicine and treatment. And this is where efficient, powerful and industrial-scale analysis will become critical. NextCODE’s analytics and interpretation systems have already been tested at such scale, as they are based on the world’s first and largest population genomics effort—that of deCODE. [see blog post] Our systems will be useful tools to efficiently deliver insights based on the vast amount of data that will be generated by these major population-based efforts to improve the state of global healthcare.