RSS FeedsThe objective of GeneLibrary Ireland is to establish a freely available resource for studying genetic effects on health and disease based on the population of the island of Ireland. This resource will consist of a bank of DNA samples linked to clinical and demographic data, anonymised so that a link to individual subjects is not possible. Funding has been allocated to GeneLibrary Ireland for a planning phase. Dr Peter Doran and a team of stakeholders are coordinating the national consultation process informing this phase.
A cross-sectional study of 10,000 individuals sampled from the general population will provide:
(i) a resource for studying genetic effects on quantitative traits such as obesity
In a short physical examination combined with analysis of plasma many quantitative traits of importance to health can be measured.
(ii) a shared control group for genetic case-control studies
Establishment of a shared control group will allow resources allocated for other DNA collections in Ireland to be used more efficiently. To establish a case-control bank for a disease of interest, researchers need only collect cases.
(iii) a health monitoring survey
Collection of clinical and demographic data from a representative population sample will provide a baseline for monitoring the health of the population, complementing previous surveys based on questionnaire data only.
Researchers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland will have rapid and unimpeded access to a resource from which it will be possible to discover new associations between genetic variation and health outcomes and establish whether associations reported elsewhere are valid in the Irish population. This could facilitate discovery of possible drug targets through detecting genetic associations with disease susceptibility and would allow tests of disease susceptibility to be validated in the Irish population.
