Alliance will build data-sharing future

World's health researchers join together to share and use 'big data'

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EMBL - European Bioinformatics Institute
The Global Alliance addresses a need for improved approaches to bring together the ever increasing amount of genomic and clinical data.

More than 60 leading health care, research and disease advocacy organisations from across the world are joining together to form an international alliance dedicated to enabling secure sharing of genomic and clinical data.

Each of these organisations has signed a ‘Letter of Intent’, pledging to work together to create a not-for-profit, inclusive, public-private, international, non-governmental organisation (modelled on the World Wide Web Consortium, W3C) that will develop a common framework.

The cost of genome sequencing has fallen one-million fold, and ever increasing numbers of people are making their genetic and clinical data available for research and clinical use. However, interpreting people’s genetic data requires a standardised biomedical evidence base that is larger than any one party alone can develop, and that adheres to the highest ethical and privacy standards.

“In recent years, many groups around the world have recognised the need for improved approaches to bring together genomic and clinical data, and some have made progress addressing this. But in coming together, and studying the challenges, we recognised that something was missing: an international body that spans diseases and institutions, committed to furthering progress in an innovative and responsible fashion.”

Professor Mike Stratton Director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

In January 2013, 50 colleagues from eight different countries met to discuss the current challenges and opportunities in genomic research and medicine, and how they could work together to foster medical progress. They concluded that the greatest need was a common framework of international standards designed to enable and oversee the sharing of genomic and clinical data in an effective, responsible, and interpretable manner.

Following the circulation of a White Paper from the meeting, more than 60 organisations from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa have joined together to form a non-profit global alliance which will work to develop a common framework, that enables new research based on shared data while protecting participant autonomy and privacy.

“At present, it is generally not possible to predict which changes in DNA sequence lead to clinical consequences. Only by comparing each personal genome sequence to a large repository of other such data can robust patterns and relationships can be identified. The stakes are high, because if we get it right we can create new opportunities to define diagnostic categories, streamline clinical trials, and match patients to therapy.

“We want to make sure this is done in a global manner, and with the highest standards for ethics and privacy.”

Dr Tom Hudson Chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Cancer Genome Consortium, and President of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in Canada

More information

List of partner organisations:

  • American Association for Cancer Research (US)
  • American Society of Clinical Oncology (US)
  • American Society of Human Genetics (US)
  • A-T Children’s Project (US)
  • Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (US)
  • BGI-Shenzhen (China)
  • Boston Children’s Hospital (US)
  • Brigham and Women’s Hospital (US)
  • Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (US)
  • California Institute of Technology (US)
  • Canadian Cancer Society (Canada)
  • Cancer Research UK (UK)
  • Center for Genomic Regulation (Spain)
  • Centro Nacional de Analisis Genomico (Spain)
  • Centre for the Advancement of Sustainable Medical Innovation (UK)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (China)
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (US)
  • European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany)
  • EMBL- European Bioinformatics Institute (UK)
  • European Society of Human Genetics (Austria)
  • Genetic Alliance (US)
  • Genetic Alliance UK (UK)
  • Genome Canada (Canada)
  • Global Genes | RARE Project (US)
  • H3ABioNet Consortium (South Africa)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • Human Variome Project International (Australia)
  • Huntington Society of Canada (Canada)
  • Institut National du Cancer (France)
  • International Cancer Genome Consortium (Canada)
  • International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (France)
  • Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (US)
  • Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University (US)
  • Lund University (Sweden)
  • Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
  • Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (US)
  • McGill University/Université McGill (Canada)
  • McLaughlin Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto (Canada)
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (US)
  • National Cancer Center (Japan)
  • National Cancer Institute (US)
  • National Human Genome Research Institute (US)
  • National Institute for Health and Welfare (Finland)
  • 2
  • National Institute for Health Research (UK)
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
  • New York Genome Center (US)
  • Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (Canada)
  • Partners HeathCare (US)
  • P3G – Public Population Project in Genomics and Society (Canada)
  • PHG Foundation (UK)
  • Queen’s University Belfast (UK)
  • Sage Bionetworks (US)
  • Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital (Canada)
  • Simons Foundation (US)
  • Spanish National Cancer Research Center (Spain)
  • St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (Canada)
  • The Hospital for Sick Children (Canada)
  • The University of Cape Town (South Africa)
  • University Health Network (Canada)
  • University of California, Berkeley (US)
  • University of California Health System (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • University of Oxford (UK)
  • University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (US)
  • University of Toronto (Canada)
  • University of Waterloo (Canada)
  • Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (UK)
  • The Wellcome Trust (UK)

Selected websites

  • The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

    The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world’s leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.

  • The Wellcome Trust

    The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.