2nd TCGA Workshop and Conference in India
The 2nd TCGA Workshop and Conference in India was jointly organized by Centre for Translational Cancer Research [CTCR] – a joint initiative of Prashanti Cancer Care Mission and IISER Pune along with Persistent Systems, TCGA, Institute of Cancer Research(UK), CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology and DBT-Wellcome Trust India Alliance. This online workshop and conference was based on the theme ‘Towards Team Science for Multi-omics Cancer Research in South Asia’. The conference’s central theme was of building a culture of team science for undertaking mega-cancer research projects in India and neighboring countries.
During this conference, the vision, design and plans of the India Cancer Genome Atlas (ICGA) project were also discussed and Dr. Anand Deshpande spoke extensively about its current stage and updated the attendees about the way forward.
Brief Outline of the Proposed Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA)
Mission Statement
To create an indigenously developed, open-source, comprehensive database of molecular profiles of all cancers prevalent in Indian populations. Specifically, the goal is to characterize the genomic, transcriptomic, epigenetic and proteomic features of Indian cancers using advanced, next-generation multi-omics technologies.
In this public health effort, high quality meta-data of cancer patients and biospecimens (blood, cancer tissues) representing various clinical scenarios will be ethically collected from various geographical regions of India. Big data generated after multi-omics profiling will be curated and analyzed for correlation with clinico-pathological profiles. Such curated databases will be then open-sourced to the Indian and global cancer research communities.
Strategy
The successful creation and quality of the proposed open-source multi-omics database of Indian cancers will be entirely dependent on the uniformity, sanctity and integrity of the meta-data and biospecimens collected from various geographical locations. Hence, a pan-India consortium of partners will be established, which will operate as a ‘hub-and-spoke’ model. The work plan comprises of 5 major representative domains:
Primary data and sample collection centres in regional cancer hospitals/clinics (based on a pan-India consortium)
- Central biobank and sample processing unit
- Database and analytics centre
- Multi-omics data-generation centre
- Capacity building: short courses and hands-on training workshops on all aspects of the project and more importantly, on effective and timely use of the meta-data collected as above for patient care.
Session 1: Towards Establishment of Multi-Omics Cancer Research Projects in South
Speaker:
Dr Anand Deshpande
Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, Persistent Systems
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