The Singapore Genomics Programme (SGP) is to set up a nationwide medical database, which will combine personal medical data with samples of tissue, body fluid and DNA. Initially, the database will focus on patients affected by common conditions such as cancer, heart disease and stroke, reports last week's Nature. But in the long-term, the project will probably be expanded to include health-related information on the general population.
Researchers believe that the genetic diversity of Singapore's inhabitants will prove invaluable - for example, in the study of different responses to drugs. Similar databases have so far been limited to countries with a relatively genetically-homogenous population, such as Estonia and Iceland. In the light of the controversy surrounding the national Icelandic genetic database, SGP director Kong Hwai Loong says it will take a couple of years to sort out the ethical aspects of the project, even though the SGP is not planning to examine 'a major chunk of the population' as in Iceland.
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Singapore to create nationwide disease database
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