Abstract

India currently has the world's second-largest population along with a fast-growing economy and significant economic disparity. It also continues to experience a high rate of infectious disease and increasingly higher rates of chronic diseases. However, India cannot afford to import expensive technologies and therapeutics nor can it, as an emerging economy, emulate the health-delivery systems of the developed world. Instead, to address these challenges it is looking to biotechnology-based innovation in the field of genomics. The Indian Genome Variation (IGV) consortium, a government-funded collaborative network among seven local institutions, is a reflection of these efforts. The IGV has recently developed the first large-scale database of genomic diversity in the Indian population that will facilitate research on disease predisposition, adverse drug reactions and population migration.

Author affiliations

1. Billie-Jo Hardy, Béatrice Séguin, Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar are at the McLaughlin–Rotman Centre for Global Health, Program on Life Sciences, Ethics and Policy, University Health Network and University of Toronto, MaRS Centre, South Tower, Suite 406, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
2. Béatrice Séguin is also at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, 144 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3M2, Canada.
3. Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar are also at the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine, MaRS Centre, Toronto Medical Discovery Tower, Suite 701, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
4. Mitali Mukerji and Samir K. Brahmachari are at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi 100 007, India.
5. A.S.D. and S.K.B. are the senior lead authors.

Correspondence to: Abdallah S. Daar^1,3,5 Email: a.daar@utoronto.ca

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