More than 400 people from Sofia and Plovdiv took part in the pilot phase of the project “The Genome of Bulgaria”, which aims to collect and analyse a representative sample of genomes of modern Bulgarians. In the first stage it is planned to examine a total of 1000 healthy adult Bulgarian citizens. With the overall initiative, our country will contribute to a large European project in which each country will present a reference genome typical of its population.
Each person is unique thanks to the specific combination of genetic and non-genetic factors that have shaped him/ her. From the blood samples collected under the project, DNA will be isolated and read in full (whole genome sequencing) to detect any variation in the participants’ genome. They will help shape the collective Bulgarian genome.
The volunteers in the project “The Genome of Bulgaria” actually help the development of medicine in our country and in Europe. Through this initiative we will better understand how our DNA affects our health, what is the risk of developing different genetic diseases, which variants in our genome determine how Bulgarians absorb different medications, which diseases we are more prone to and to which we have innate resistance, which therapies would be effective for each participant and which – not so much.
With this project, our country will rank among the countries benefiting from the latest achievements of world science. The donated samples and information will be used in research related to genetic diseases such as rare diseases, cancer, common socially significant diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and even infectious diseases.
“This is a chance for each of us to contribute to the health of our children, to our future as a nation, because by donating our genetic data, we help the development of medicine. The collected information will improve prevention and diagnosis as well as make it possible to develop more effective and personalized therapies for very serious and frequent diseases,” said the project manager, prof. Radka Kaneva.
The Bulgarian team of the initiative includes scientists from the Medical University-Sofia and the Medical University-Plovdiv. Biological material from volunteers is collected in the laboratories of both universities. The Molecular Medicine Centre at the Medical University-Sofia will perform genomic sequencing (whole genome sequencing), data processing and storage. Confidentiality is guaranteed and the data will be encrypted and stored at the highest level of security. Bulgaria participated in an infrastructure project for the creation of a European genomic data network (GDI), which will be available for research after approval, in strict and uniform order. The GDI project is co-financed by the European Commission and the Ministry of Education and Science.
After approval by the European Commission later in 2024, Bulgaria is expected to fully participate in the large-scale project “The Genome of Europe”, which will need to collect the genetic data of 6500 adult Bulgarian citizens from all major ethnicities and geographical areas of Bulgaria.
More detailed information about the project can be found on the website of Molecular Medicine Centre (MMC) and the National University Complex for Biomedical and Translational Research (NUCBTR).
Source: https://mu-sofia.bg/