Thousands Japanese Whole Genome Sequencing and Bioinformatics at Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization

Masao Nagasaki, Naoki Nariai, Kaname Kojima, Yumi Yamaguchi, Yukuto Sato, Riu Yamashita, Junya Yamagishi, Ikuko Motoike, Matsuyuki Shirota, Kengo Kinoshita, Jun Yasuda, Fukumi Katsuoka and Masayuki Yamamoto

Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Japan

Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization (ToMMo) was founded to establish an advanced medical system to foster the reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake. The organization will develop a biobank that combines medical and genome information during the process of rebuilding the community medical system and supporting health and welfare in the Tohoku area. The information from the brand-new biobank will create a new medical system, and, based on the findings of its analysis, the organization aims to attract more medical practitioners from all over the country to the area, promote industry-academic partnerships, create employment in related fields, and restore the medical system in Tohoku.

A blueprint for Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization is a ten-year project including three main activities: a biobank combining medical and genome information; an online platform for the coordination of community medical information; and training program designed for a varieties of highly specialized professionals and experts such as researchers of bioinformatics and science communicators. The biobank to be developed will be utilized to analyze the local heredity information so that it can establish an advanced medical system based on genome information with cutting-edge information and communication technology.

The first goal of ToMMo is to understand the genetical detailed background of population in this area including population specific rare variants. Thus, we will apply deep coverage whole genome sequencing of thousands people who applied to this prospective genome cohort project within years. This poster presents the oral presenter’s responsible part; the data management and the analysis of massive amount of high throughput sequencing data on this project.