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Abstract
Most large population-based genomic studies have, until now, mainly focused on European ancestral populations. The Singapore-based GenomeAsia100K (GA100K) Consortium aims to address this bias by targeting major Asian populations and generating reference genomes for various ethnic groups. GA100K is also studying historical population migrations and providing bioinformatic tools that may help tackle diseases among Asia’s multi-ethnic populations. These project goals transcend national boundaries, national genome projects, localized national science, and medicine. Rather, GA100K leverages the strategic location of Singapore as a regional nexus to advance science and technology within Singapore. GA100K is thus symptomatic of the Singaporean nation-state’s ambition to be a knowledge-based economy and a regional biomedical hub. This article thus speaks to literature in STS that deals with the interface and entanglements of human tissue biobanks, human genome projects, and national development.
Acknowledgements
We thank Sharad Pandian for providing valuable comments and assistance preparing this manuscript. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers for their critical feedback on an earlier draft of this article and we are grateful to the journal editor Wen-Hua Kuo for his help throughout this process.
Disclosure Statement
During the course of this research, Ian McGonigle became a consortium member of GenomeAsia100K.
Notes
1 The HapMap Consortium was established by collaboration among academic researchers, not-for-profit biomedical research groups, and private companies in Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, China, United States, and Nigeria; with government funding from Japan, the UK, the US, China, as well as private funding from Genome Quebec.
2 Genotyping is the process of determining differences in the genetic make-up of an individual by comparing it with another sample or reference genome. Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is a newer and more powerful technology than earlier genotyping techniques and with the decreasing cost, population-based genome projects are preferring NGS over genotyping. NGS has an advantage over genotyping techniques in the area of Precision Medicine. For further details, see Goodwin, McPherson, and McCombie (Citation2016).
3 For more information about UK Biobank see: https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk.
4 UK Biobank. Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/scientists-3/genetic-data/.
Wellcome Sanger Institute, “500,000 whole human genomes will be a game-changer for research into human diseases,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.sanger.ac.uk/news/view/500000-whole-human-genomes-will-be-game-changer-research-human-diseases.
5 University of Tartu (EGCUT), “Estonian Genome Centre,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://genomics.ut.ee/en/about-us/estonian-genome-centre.
6 The Republic of Estonia, Ministry of Social Welfare, “Genome Project: 100,000 samples collected, in 2019 at least 50,000 more people can join,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.sm.ee/en/news/genome-project-100000-samples-collected-2019-least-50000-more-people-can-join.
7 For more information about TIPA Biobank see https://www.ksminnovation.com/biobank.
8 NLGIP is Israel’s national biobank. For further details see (McGonigle Citation2020a).
9 Longitudinal studies are a type of observational study which employs continuous or repeated measures to follow individuals over prolonged periods, often years or decades.
10 deCODE genetics, Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.decode.com.
11 University of Tartu (EGCUT), “Estonian Genome Centre,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://genomics.ut.ee/en/about-us/estonian-genome-centre.
12 UK Biobank, Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk.
13 For example, China Kadoorie Biobank, initiated in 2003; Taizhou Biobank (now called Taizhou Longitudinal Cohort Study (See Sleeboom-Faulkner Citation2018)); Guangzhou Cohort Biobank; The China Marrow Donor Program; Xinjiang Endemic & Ethnic Disease Biobank; Fudan University Biobank.
14 Biobanking Japan, Accessed 20 June 2020. biobankjp.org.
15 National Biobank of Korea, Accessed 20 June 2020. http://nih.go.kr/contents.es?mid=a50402030200.
16 For more information about PGH Biobank, see: https://www.biobank.ph.
17 The Nation Thailand, “Building a biobank,” Accessed 15 June 2020. https://www.nationthailand.com/Startup_and_IT/30339675.
18 For more information about Turkey Biobank, see: https://www.tuseb.gov.tr/Haber/80.
19 For more information about Vietnam Biobank, see: https://www.vinmec.com/en/tin-tuc/hoat-dong-benh-vien/vinmec-announced-its-largest-vietnamese-genome-research-project/.
20 For more information about Estonia Biobank, see: https://genomics.ut.ee/en/about-us/estonian-genome-centre.
21 For more information about Mexico’s Biobank, see: https://www.inmegen.gob.mx.
22 For more information about Qatar Biobank, see: https://www.qatarbiobank.org.qa.
23 A*STAR, Genome Institute of Singapore, “Introducing “SG10K: Cataloging genetic diversity and population structures in 10,000 South Asians,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.a-star.edu.sg/docs/librariesprovider5/default-document-library/publications-press-releases/38-bellis_ashg_2016_approved.pdf.
24 UK Biobank, Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk.
25 For more information about Qatar Biobank, see: https://www.qatarbiobank.org.qa.
26 Qatar Genome, “Qatar Genome Programme,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://qatargenome.org.qa.
27 Precision medicine is “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person” (https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/precisionmedicine/definition).
28 OECD (Citation2010), “Singapore: Rapid Improvement Followed by Strong Performance,” Accessed 20 June 2020. https://www.oecd.org/countries/singapore/46581101.pdf.
29 Biopolis is a cluster designated for biomedical research and development which houses publicly funded research institutes as well as research laboratories of pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies. For more information see Clancey (Citation2012), Fischer (Citation2013), and Gelfert (Citation2013).
30 A concerted effort was also made by different ministries to contribute to the newly enlarged scientific community in Singapore. This was done through the powerful Economic and Development Board (EDB), The Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Education, and the National Research Foundation.
31 The Singaporean government adopted the CMIO model to govern a multi-ethnic society, although the Singapore government uses the term “multi-racial” (Nasir and Turner Citation2014).
32 The Singapore Consortium for Cohort Studies (SCCS) and Singapore Epidemiology of Eye Disease (SEED) program are two examples (Coopmans and Hua Citation2018).
33 A*STAR, Genome Institute of Singapore, “Introducing “SG10K: Cataloging genetic diversity and population structures in 10,000 South Asians,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.a-star.edu.sg/docs/librariesprovider5/default-document-library/publications-press-releases/38-bellis_ashg_2016_approved.pdf.
34 GenomeAsia100K, “Let’s Map the Gap in Genomic Data,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://genomeasia100k.org.
35 The Straits Times, “Asia-wide genome mapping reveals large genetic diversity,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/asia-wide-genome-mapping-reveals-large-genetic-diversity.
36 Youjin Low, “Asians have at least 10 ancestral lineages, northern Europeans just one: NTU-hosted genetic study,” Accessed 26 February 2020. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/asians-have-least-10-ancestral-lineages-northern-europeans-just-one-ntu-hosted-genetic.
37 Mishra Siddharth, “Results Of Largest Genomic Study Of Asians To Have Impact On Our Understanding Of Population Formations,” Accessed 4 March 2020. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-results-of-largest-genomic-study-of-asians-to-have-impact-on-healthcare-understanding-of-population-formations/343574.
38 The dataset includes 598 sequences from India, 156 from Malaysia, 152 from South Korea, 113 from Pakistan, 100 from Mongolia, 70 from China, 70 from Papua New Guinea, 68 from Indonesia, 52 from the Philippines, 35 from Japan and 32 from Russia.
39 They are from Asian Archival DNA Repository Consortium Japan; Ryukyu University Japan; MedGenome; National Institute of Biomedical Genomics India; SRM University India; Seoul National University Hospital; Genomic Medicine Institute Korea; Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Russia; Pennsylvania State University; Duke University from the USA and IMR Malaysia.
40 They are based at the University of California San Francisco, University of Virginia, Genentech, Penn State University, Nanyang Technological University, Macrogen Korea, University of Tokyo, NIBMG India, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Russia and Trinity College Dublin.
41 Founder and Managing Director of Emerge Ventures.
42 Founder and Chairman of MedGenome.
43 Since Porter published The Competitive Advantage of Nations (1990), the concept of clusters has received attention in public debates about industrial policy. According to Porter, clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected firms and supporting or coordinating organizations.
44 NTU (Citation2019), “Asia-wide genome mapping project reveals insights into Asian ancestry and genetic diversity,” Accessed 20 June 2020. https://phys.org/news/2019-12-asia-wide-genome-reveals-insights-asian.html.
45 For example, in China, Malaysia, and Indonesia, sharing genetic samples and data across borders is difficult.
46 Ministry of Health Singapore, Accessed 20 June 2020. https://www.moh.gov.sg/policies-and-legislation/human-biomedical-research-act.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Manoj Vimal
Manoj Vimal is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University. He is currently working on several projects investigating genomics and society in Asia.
Wairokpam Premi Devi
Wairokpam Premi Devi is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Division of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University. She is working on innovation, the biosciences, and national development in Asia.
Ian McGonigle
Ian McGonigle is a Nanyang Assistant Professor of Global Science, Technology, and Society in the Division of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University. He is broadly interested in the relationships between science, technology and identity.