Psifas Israeli Genome Project
Big Data as the Best Medicine
This year, the Psifas (“Mosaic”) personalized-medicine collaboration demonstrated that when it comes to using genomic data for medical breakthroughs, small countries with big ambitions and even bigger talent can make the largest impact.
Watch this (Chromosomal) Space
“The whole world is watching Israel, but this time, in a strictly positive sense. By mapping the genetic makeup of Israel’s diverse subpopulations, we’re pointing the way toward personalized medicine, with benefits for everyone,” says Prof. Gabi Barbash, former CEO of Ichilov Hospital and current director of the Psifas Israeli Genome Project. “To date, over 57,000 participants have already been recruited to the Psifas project, half of whom are people with unique and rare diseases. Some of these participants were recruited as part of targeted studies initiated by researchers, such as volunteers who were diagnosed with cancer at a young age. Additionally, Psifas builds on the foundational Israeli Reference Genome Study (IRGS). Completed in collaboration with Illumina, the study successfully sequenced and analyzed the genomes from all 60 different Israeli subpopulations, creating the country’s first comprehensive genetic reference.”
Illumina Sequencing Machine
Last year alone, the project sequenced samples from 30,000 volunteers at five Israeli hospitals’ new Illumina-equipped centers, enabling Israeli scientists to facilitate cutting-edge research into the causes of genetic variations, a key to the early diagnosis and treatment of hereditary disease. Happily, it’s already making good on that promise: Of the 30,000 genomes sequenced, four percent were discovered to have Actionable Genes, or genes associated with diseases for which there exist therapies. Psifas advised the volunteers—all of whom had the BRCA1/2 mutations responsible for breast cancer—so that they could take preventative measures. “This was our our way to thank them,” says Barbash, “for the gift of their participation.”
Housed in the Leslie and Susan Gonda (Goldschmied) Nanotechnology Triplex at Bar-Ilan—selected from among all Israel’s universities on account of its AI expertise—Psifas will not only enhance both basic and clinical research. Barbash explains that the initiative will also accelerate the growth of Israel’s biotech industry, already a major growth engine for the country’s economy. Indeed, this past January, the precision-medicine software company Lifebit announced a long-term partnership with Psifas aimed at building a secure and unified platform for all R&D. And it will need it: Psifas aims to sequence the samples of one million Israeli volunteers over the next five years. All this, points out Barbash, without the non-governmental sources of funding on which other countries’ genetic repositories depend. “Just imagine what Psifas could do for Israel’s health and prosperity if we had private philanthropy,” he says. “Today, almost half of Israelis have diseases that have not yet been adequately addressed. With data from Psifas, researchers can pose key questions about the genetic basis of these diseases—and find the answers, too. We can turn Israel into a biotech light unto all the nations.”
Prof. Gabi Barbash, director of the Psifas Israeli Genome Project, speaks at the AWS Cloud Computing Summit in Tel Aviv in June.
