Justin Petrone

At the European Society of Human Genetics meeting, experts discussed how to resolve questions raised by the EU's General Data Protection Regulation around genomic data sharing.

Experts agreed that more must be done to address disparities not only in research but also in the implementation of findings in local healthcare settings.

Both studies relied on data collected via the FinnGen project, an international effort to collect genotype and health registry data on 500,000 people in Finland by 2023.

DeCode has identified markers associated with osteoarthritis and autoimmune thyroid disease and is developing a calculator to predict five-year mortality risk.

The effort relied on Estonian Biobank data, the sequencing of archaic genomes, and diverse analytical methods to assess the relatedness of the kindred populations.

The program is expected to aid increased investments in RNA-based products, which the organizers maintain are currently limited by manufacturing constraints.

In particular, the diagnostics company expects the new resource to strengthen its offerings to pharmaceutical partners, a key customer group.

The European Union has backed the project, called Droplet-Small-Seq, with a €146,000 Horizon 2020 research grant.

The company has used RNA sequencing to discover its marker set but plans to transition the assay to a PCR platform before it seeks regulatory clearance.

The Manchester, UK-based company had previously planned to have a CE-IVD marked test out by June 30.