Nature | 2021
Sequence three million genomes across Africa.
Abstract
The African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG), which I currently lead, was established in 2003 to help address disparities, improve education, enhance networking and build research capacity in Africa (www afshg org) A rough estimate for capturing the full scope of Africa s genetic variation would require sequencing some three million individuals, carefully selected across Africa to cover ethnolinguistic, regional and other groups [ ]we aim to start such a project, called the Three Million African Genomes (3MAG), which would build capacity on the continent - in genomics research and its applications, and governance Last year, that number was 10%, because all the other NIH institutes also support discipline-specific research grounded in genetics5 3MAG would aim to sequence enough genomes across Africa to build a representative human reference genome and to establish a pan-African biobank of clinical information and samples People with two copies of the sickle mutation have deformed, banana-shaped red blood cells