Dear Colleagues

Welcome to Lucknow

Genomic technologies have thrown up new challenges. Size of data, processing, sharing, privacy, and protection are a few to name. In addition, global efforts to provide genomic data for public use are still far away from the need, specifically for the Indians. GnomAD, 1000Genomes, ClinVar, HGMD, and other databases still have poor representation of our local population. Massive efforts and collaborations are needed to bridge this gap and gear up the world for precision medicine. Variable responses to drugs and genomic architecture of cancers have already indicated where personalized therapeutic approaches are headed. In this context, we aim to bring in experts in the field to discuss how genomic data can be stored, shared, and used in an acceptable manner for the Indian population.

Indian health care is changing with publicly funded healthcare and increased funding for rare diseases. Many hospitals have shifted to electronic health records. NGS-based testing for genetic disorders is already incorporated into clinical practice. With the availability of large amounts of genomic and clinical data, there is an urgent need of establishing databases and systems for patient care in India. The proposed conference with experts from various countries will provide an opportunity to brainstorm on data storage and its public use with due consideration to autonomy and privacy globally and in India. We anticipate that several collaborations will emerge from this meeting.