Science for a better future
 Introduction 
 

The Human Genome Project is one of the greatest scientific endeavors in history, and it represents the greatest exploration journey to uncover the secrets of the human body. The idea first appeared in 1988, with the US National Academy of Sciences which formed a special committee to develop the project in cooperation with the National Institute of Health (NIH). An international team was formed, in which many countries of the world participated, to work together to decode the entire genetic content of the human genome. This gave us the ability to read through the complete genome of humans.

The human genome is the basic blueprint that is, in large, responsible for all human biologic behavior in health and disease. The genome is largely responsible for the external features of man, the efficiency of his bodily functions and the diversity of human individuals. The genome includes several types of variations;

  • Mutations (serious genetic variations that spoil the function and product of the gene) and directly cause rare genetic diseases.
  • Minor genetic variations that have a role in the occurrence of common diseases (e.g. cancer, heart disease, hypertension, obesity and autoimmunity) by interacting with environmental factors such as nutrition, infectious agents, exposure to toxic or carcinogens, or in the different responses of humans to medications, (including therapeutic responses, side effects and adverse reactions).
  • Subtle genetic variations that science has not shown to have a negative impact on the functions of genes and are largely responsible for diversity among human subjects.

To gain insight into the personal genome or the individual’s genome, it is required to know the types of the genetic variations in it and its relationship to the states of health and disease. This implies the importance of studying the sum of genetic differences in nations (or the so-called population genome) to differentiate between the variations responsible for the occurrence of diseases or biological differences in the response to medications and those that do not adversely affect the biological functions of the individual. This aspect has unfortunately been understudied among Egyptian individuals.

The human genome is the basic blueprint that is responsible, in large, for all human biologic behavior in health and disease. The genome is largely responsible for the external features of man, the efficiency of his bodily functions and the diversity of human individuals. The study of the human genome (or human genetic code) is the direct way to embrace the modern medical field called precision medicine, which focuses on providing a unique health service based on the genetic makeup of the individual to be more effective and successful. This allows the study of the genome to achieve unprecedented insights about the health of the individual not only in the form of the most successful therapeutic methods and more accurate diagnostic methods, but also address the long-term future expectation of the health of the individual in the so-called preventive medicine.

 Goals 
  • Establish a reference Egyptian genome
  • Advancement in precision, personalized medicine and gene therapy
  • Maintaining accuracy, real time, relevance and reliability
  • Maintain international quality standards (ethically, methodologically and analytically)
  • Capacity building and collaboration/exchange of scientific national and international projects
  • National and international collaboration
 
 
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