Decoding the Vietnamese gene for the first time to detect the risk of disease early

The above information was said by Professor Vu Ha Van, Scientific Director, VinBigdata Big Data Research Institute (under Vingroup) on the morning of April 22 during the launch of GeneStory.

In addition to providing information about pathologicalphysical health, nutrition for treatment, gene decoding results to help detect faulty genes early, the risk of serious and chronic diseases, recessive genetic diseases and rare diseases such as cancer, stroke, obesity obesity, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes… “From now on we can provide services to anyone who needs genetic analysis to find out if they are at risk for disease, screening, screening. newborn and pre-marital screening”, Prof Van said, adding that results can be returned in 14 days.

According to Prof. Vu Ha Van, the purpose of the gene decoding product follows basic research and towards the application of “preventive medicine” – a popular direction in the world. This is the result of more than 3 years of the pursuit group.

Gene sequencing is the basis for understanding disease risk, thereby helping to build an optimal health care route. Mr. Van cited for example, if a patient has symptoms of diabetes, they will have to undergo expensive treatment, and their quality of life will decrease. But this disease is completely preventable if a test detects whether they are at risk of diabetes or not. “Then we can change the lifestyle, take some drugs with the treatment regimen to limit the possibility of getting sick or being late,” he said.

As another example, total preventive medicine predicts an individual’s response to medication, the risk of drug reactions, and anaphylaxis. From the genetic data, the doctor can know the adverse reactions, choose the right drug for each person. “Gene is the best means to perform preventive medicine tests,” said Prof. Vu Ha Van.

Prof. Van said that GeneStory inherits research experience from VinBigdata’s project of Sequencing 1,000 Vietnamese genomes, is the only supplier in the Vietnamese market to comprehensively decode indicators related to the ability of Vietnamese people. ability to respond to drugs (genetic pharmacology) and side effects of drugs in the treatment of cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory, rheumatic, psychiatric, cancer… Currently, the research team consists of 50 leading scientists in the field of medicine. from Harvard University (USA), Johns Hopkins University (USA), Ludwig Cancer Research Institute (USA), Golden Helix Foundation (UK), Singapore Bioinformatics Institute, General Hospital Vinmec International Faculty, Hanoi Medical University…

Around the world, many countries use genetic analysis to predict disease risk, drug and laboratory side effects, newborn screening and premarital screening.

In Vietnam, genetic testing can send samples to foreign companies, but analysis is based on samples and data algorithms of Europeans. “Therefore, the decoding of genes for Vietnamese people will need to be based on data specific to the Vietnamese genome,” Prof. Van said. He added that this is the first time that analytical data for preventive medicine in the direction of individualization has been performed based on the genetic background of Vietnamese people.

In the world, there have been a number of major projects announced, including 1,000 genomes (1KGP) (USA); 1,000 WGS (Whole geneome sequencing): Japan, Korea, UAE, Sweden, Thailand; 10,000 Singapore genomes; 100,000 UK genomes. Top 10 countries with projects to decode the entire human genome (sample size from 100,000 genomes): USA, UK, France, Japan, China, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Estonia, UAE, Turkey.

Nhu Quynh