The National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health has accomplished its primary mission. This is not according to me, but according to its Director, Dr. Eric Green. The NIH institute created to sequence the human genome has disseminated that information far and wide to nearly every other NIH center. Now, only 20% of funded grants containing the words “human genome” are funded through NHGRI (compared to 95% back in 2003). So…. what’s next?
According to Eric Green and NHGRI’s website, the institute intends to “identify, lead, and support paradigm-shifting areas of genomics that will expand the field into new frontiers”. So much so that they’ve registered a trademark: THE FOREFRONT OF GENOMICS®
This past weekend, Katie Grabek (our CSO) and I attended a focused workshop on Comparative Genomics and Evolution held in Bethesda, Maryland as part of NHGRI’s 2020 strategic planning. We, along with around 120 other computational biologists, evolutionary biologists, experts in cross-species ontologies and terminologies, conservationists, genomicists (studying everything from bird-song to cattle reproduction to cures for cancer in elephants), and representatives from eight different government agencies brainstormed that question - what’s next. Everyone in the room was focused on one goal - how we should organize and utilize the vast amounts of data coming from “non-traditional” species for the betterment of health (human and animal).
It was an odd mix of folks from a broad swath of biology and backgrounds. All were engaged in the discussion and hopeful that with this new strategic plan, we would see a paradigm shift in the notion that we can only learn about humans by sequencing, well, humans. Two of our academic advisors were also in the room (image to right). Elinor Karlsson from the Broad Institute was a conference organizer and Carlos Bustamante gave a great finale to Session 1 by discussing how data from hibernators can give us insight into novel therapeutics as well as building value from key early investments from NSF, NIH and other agencies.
One recurring theme from the weekend was the need for more and better genomes (there is a consortium working to sequence all 1.5 million eukaryotic species - more on that here). However, the more interesting question is how to move from genomes to function and link that massive amount of genetic information to:
1) phenotypes or traits (which is the focus of our collaborators, the Monarch Initiative) and
2) to understand the function of all those genes, which groups like FAANG and others are working to do by working on understanding RNA expression and regulatory elements in diverse species
What also became clear is that our team at Fauna Bio is unique in its concerted focus on translating findings from these novel datasets and building the expertise and networks together to be able to move promising therapeutics towards the clinic through strategic partnerships. The community is excited to see the possibilities to commercialize technology from their research and we had multiple investigators approach us regarding potential collaborations, which we are currently evaluating.
Follow the conversation at #genomics2020 and @faunabio as the field of genomics is quickly being transformed from a human-centric phenomenon into a much more diverse field with a vast amount of untapped potential!
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