The Malaysian Node of The Human Variome Project
The ethnic population of Malaysia comprises 50.4% Malays and 11% other indigenous groups who form the majority of the population. The other major ethnic groups are Chinese and Indians.
The proposed genome mapping of these ethnicities will illustrate the genetic map of the country's migration history and the extent of genetic similarities between the various ethnic populations. The mapping will also provide a genome database for a study of common diseases in Malaysia as well as its ethical, legal and social implications on our society.
A Malaysian node of the international Human Variome Project (HVP, is a consortium entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the study. The consortium comprises 69 researchers from various institutions in the country including Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA), Multimedia University (MMU), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), Monash University Malaysia, Medical Genetics Society of Malaysia, Genetics Society of Malaysia, Sengenics, Synamatix, Malaysian Society of Bioinformatics And Computational Biology and Chemistry Department of Malaysia.
The goal of the project is to create a genome SNP database of the major ethnic groups in our country based on the proposed study of common diseases in Malaysia such as Thalassemia, G6PD deficiency, Tuberculosis, Helicobacter pylori infection and the susceptibility of diseases amongst respective ethnic population.
What is Genomic?
Genomics is the study of the genome of an individual. A genome is the entirety of a person's hereditary information encoded in DNA. The field of genomics includes research and identification of the entire DNA sequence variation of an individual and fine-scale genetic mapping efforts.
Genomic variations in human DNA sequences can affect disease development and an individual's response to drugs, infections, and vaccines. One of these genomic variations is the single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP.
In biomedical research, identification of these genomic variations will enable researchers to conduct comparative studies between matched cohorts with and without a particular disease. Discovery of these variations will provide fundamental new insights into the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases and towards the development of personalized medicine.
What is MyHVP?
In Malaysia, various ethnic groups show different patterns of historical migrations and speak languages from the Austroasiatic and Austronesian families. However, cultures in Malaysia have steadily transcended ethnic boundaries over the centuries. Hence, the proposed Malaysian Node of the Human Variome Project has three main objectives:
(1) To create a reliable and extensive national genomics database of ethnicities in the country.
(2) To create a phenotype database of genetic diseases common to respective ethnic communities.
(3) To examine the ethical, legal, and social implications on Malaysian society.
Objectives of MyHVP
Our objectives are:
(1) To create the human genome variation map of the major ethnic groups in Malaysia.
(2) To study the implications of genome mapping on ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI), pharmacogenomics, nutrigenomics, toxicogenomics, archeogenomics, forensics, genome-wide disease association studies (GWAS), and the country's migration history.