European Commission - Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
European Commission - Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology
11/14/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/14/2024 11:38
Genome of Europe project launched: the first step towards a European reference genome
The Genome of Europe (GoE) project got under way, with the ambition to build a European reference genome that will help unlock new advances in medicine and benefit public health policy.
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The kick-off meeting on 30-31 October marked the start of the GoE, an ambitious pan-European project implemented jointly by 51 institutes across 27 European countries. The GoE has a total budget of almost €45 million, out of which €20 million is funded under the Digital Europe Programme.
Over the next 42 months, the GoE will establish the first European reference genome, the digital representation of all the DNA in our body. It will reflect European genetic and ancestral diversity by country, including minorities. To achieve this, the project will involve the participation of over 100,000 European citizens, both from existing biobanks and new volunteers. This genomic data will create national genomic reference cohorts that will be aggregated and presented at the European level, making it one of the world's most comprehensive genomic endeavours to date.
In alignment with the goals of the 1+MG Initiative, by early 2028, the GoE will offer a unique data resource that will redress the fragmentation in genetic information across Member States. Importantly, it will enable groundbreaking medical research for disease prediction, prevention, diagnosis and treatment, boost advances in personalised medicine, and support public health policy measures, for example for rare diseases and cancer.
The GoE data will feed into the Genomic Data Infrastructure project, another Digital Europe initiative, enabling access to genomic data across Europe for research, healthcare and public health policy purposes. The potential creation of a new European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (EDIC) for genomics will provide opportunities for the secondary use of data, which will feed into the larger framework of the European Health Data Space (EHDS).