The <a href="https://www.genome.gov/">National Human Genome Research Institute</a> (NHGRI) has funded a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to multiple common disease phenotypes. Called the <a href="https://www.genome.gov/Funded-Programs-Projects/NHGRI-Genome-Sequencing-Program/Centers-for-Common-Disease-Genomics">Centers for Common Disease Genomics</a> (CCDG), this initiative will explore a range of diseases with the ultimate goal of: undertaking variant discovery for enough different examples of disease architectures and study designs to better understand the general principles of the genomic architecture underlying common, complex inherited diseases; understanding how best to design rare variant studies for common disease; developing resources, informatics tools, and innovative approaches and technologies for multiple disease research communities and the wider biomedical research community. The initial focus of the CCDGs will be in cardiovascular disease (early-onset coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, hemorrhagic stroke), neuropsychiatric disease (epilepsy, autism), and autoimmune/inflammatory disease (type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease). The <a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/">Broad Institute</a> is one of four selected CCDG project centers. The overarching aim of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) program is to define the full allelic spectrum of protein-altering variation in genes associated to IBD, and assess their role in both Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC) risk. The whole genome sequencing data generated here is comprised of samples from US-based diverse populations including African American, Puerto-Rican, Caribean and Cuban origins.

Epilepsy genetics research is at an exciting stage where it is now feasible, with the power of a large cohort, to understand the more complex genetic components of epilepsy. The driving principle behind the Epi25 Consortium is collaboration and synergy - it is only possible to achieve this type of research by working together. The Epi25 Consortium was formed by the unification of various consortia, including Epi4K, EPIGEN, EuroEPINOMICS, the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project, EpiPGX, SANAD, and EpiCURE, and individual epilepsy investigators. The consortium's sample collection is the best resource in the world for this disease, both in terms of numbers of patients and quality of phenotypic information.
As part of the NHGRI Centers for Common Disease Genomics (2016-2020), we aggregated a global sample collection from the various repositories for whole genome genotyping and whole exome sequencing (WES) at the Broad Institute (Cambridge, MA), initiating the largest and most ethnically diverse genetic study of epilepsy to date. The primary epilepsy phenotypes for Epi25 are based on strict standards agreed upon by the epilepsy community. The epilepsy cases contributed by Epi25 sites can be broadly defined as genetic generalized epilepsy (GGE), non-acquired focal epilepsy (NAFE), epileptic encephalopathies (EE), and lesional focal epilepsies. More information about eligibility criteria and phenotyping forms for Epi25, as well as the contributing centers, can be found here: <a href="http://epi-25.org/epi25-eligibility-criteria.">epi-25.org</a> The genomic data will be analyzed iteratively to identify genes and variants that explain these types of epilepsy. Summary clinical data compiled in the Epi25 clinical database will allow retrospective phenotypic analyses of groups of subjects with common genomic variant(s). In v3 of this dbGaP study release, we are releasing CCDG-funded whole exome sequencing data from >30000 Epi25 samples and basic phenotype information such as epilepsy type.

The Centers for Mendelian Genomics project uses next-generation sequencing and computational approaches to discover the genes and variants that underlie Mendelian conditions. By discovering genes that cause Mendelian conditions, we will expand our understanding of their biology to facilitate diagnosis and new treatments.

The TaiChi consortium consists of 6 studies that collaborated initially in a large scale metabochip study, and became an ongoing consortium for studies of cardiometabolic disease in the Chinese population in Taiwan. The six studies included the following: 1) SAPPHIRe (Stanford-Asian Pacific Program in Hypertension and Insulin Resistance), a family based study established in 1995 with an initial goal of identifying major genetic loci underlying hypertension and insulin resistance in East Asian populations, with Taiwan subjects participating in the TaiChi consortium; 2) TCAGEN (Taiwan Coronary Artery Disease GENetic), a cohort study that the enrolled patients undergoing coronary angiography or percutaneous intervention at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) in the setting of either stable angina pectoris or prior myocardial infarction; 3) TACT (TAiwan Coronary and Transcatheter intervention), a cohort study enrolled patients with angina pectoris and objective documentation of myocardial ischemia who underwent diagnostic coronary angiography and/or revascularization any time after October 2000 at the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) (similar to TCAGEN but recruitment was independent of TCAGEN); 4) Taiwan DRAGON (Taiwan Diabetes and RelAted Genetic COmplicatioN), a cohort study of Type 2 diabetes at Taichung Veterans General Hospital (Taichung VGH) in Taiwan, with participants including individuals with either newly diagnosed or established diabetes (subjects with hyperglycemia who did not meet diagnostic criteria for Type 2 DM were not included); 5) TCAD (Taichung CAD study), includes patients with a variety of cardiovascular diseases who received care at the Taichung Veterans General Hospital (Taichung VGH), i.e. specifically individuals who were hospitalized for diagnostic and interventional coronary angiography examinations and treatment; 6) TUDR (Taiwan US Diabetic Retinopathy) enrolled subjects with Type 2 diabetes who received care at Taichung Veteran General Hospital (Taichung VGH), and a small number of subjects from Taipei Tri-Service General Hospital (TSGH); TUDR subjects underwent a complete ophthalmic and fundus examination to carefully document the presence and extent of retinopathy. From these 6 studies, subjects were selected based on completeness of standard metabolic phenotyping and knowledge of cardiac disease status (early onset coronary disease), to undergo whole genome sequencing at the Broad.

The Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) was established to collect resources (biological samples and data) and conduct research to better understand the genetic basis of type 1 diabetes (T1D). Collection was initiated by ascertaining affected sib-pair families (both parents, two affected siblings and, when available, an unaffected sibling), collected from five geographic regions through four recruitment networks (Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, United Kingdom). In addition, the T1DGC collected trio families (both parents and affected child) and cases and controls from low-prevalence populations (African-American, with four grandparents self-reporting as African ancestry; Mexican-American, with four grandparents self-reporting as ancestry from Mexico). The T1DGC also served as a repository for contributed collections from other studies, all meeting the broad data-sharing policy of the T1DGC, for inclusion in the genetic studies. These collections include T1D case samples ascertained from the UK Genetic Resource Investigating Diabetes (UK GRID) cohort, SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth (SEARCH), The Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes (GoKinD), and control samples obtained from the British 1958 Birth Cohort, the UK National Blood Services collection, CLEAR (Consortium for the Longitudinal Evaluation of African-Americans with Early Rheumatoid Arthritis), the New York Cancer Project (NYCP), and other cohorts. For the NHGRI-funded Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG) project, participants with T1D and ancestry-matched controls were identified through the T1DGC, either through direct ascertainment or by contribution from other sources to the T1DGC. As the CCDG has focused initially on non-Caucasian populations for whole genome sequencing, T1DGC participants of African, Mexican and Asian ancestry (targeting ~1200 cases and ~1200 controls in each ancestral group) and a small group of participants of Northern European ancestry (~100 cases, ~100 controls) were to be contributed to the study. Whole genome sequencing of T1DGC samples would be conducted at Washington University McDonnell Genome Institute and based upon matching case-control status within an ancestry group and prioritization by the CCDG.

The human body is a complex ecosystem, hosting tens of billions of bacteria, primarily in the gut. This community, known as the 'gut microbiome', is vital to human health, affecting functions ranging from metabolism, immunity, and development, to behavior. Conversely, reduced microbiome diversity and other imbalances of the gut community (dysbiosis) are associated with many diseases of the industrialized world, such as metabolic syndrome, asthma, and inflammatory bowel diseases among others. Microbiome-based interventions thus hold the potential to revolutionize our understanding of, and therapeutic approaches to, many aspects of human health and disease. Despite many advances, current understanding of the human microbiome is largely limited to majority ethnic groups in industrialized nations, and does not reflect the full diversity of human commensal microbiota. In addition to the scientific ramifications of minority underrepresentation, there are significant translational and ethical implications as well: First, failing to capture the full diversity of healthy human microbiota may limit our ability to understand and generate effective therapeutics for many microbiome-associated diseases. Second, underrepresented groups are less likely to benefit from microbiome-based medical advances tailored to well-studied populations, propagating healthcare inequities.
The window of opportunity to characterize human microbiome diversity is closing rapidly. Human gut microbial diversity is diminishing around the globe, due to the spread of Westernized diets and lifestyles, which are associated with reduced microbiome biodiversity. The Global Microbiome Conservancy (GMbC) is a non-profit collaboration between scientists and communities around the world that aims to 1) preserve the full biodiversity of the human gut microbiome, 2) characterize its evolution across populations and host lifestyles and 3) investigate its interactions with the human host. We are collecting gut microbiome and human DNA samples from diverse populations around the world, from isolated groups to urbanized populations, to culture and study this essential biodiversity and to preserve it in a living "seed bank" as a long-term safeguard against future extinctions.
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to multiple common disease phenotypes. Called the Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG), this initiative will explore a range of diseases with the ultimate goal of: Undertaking variant discovery for enough different examples of disease architectures and study designs to better understand the general principles of the genomic architecture underlying common, complex inherited diseases. Understanding how best to design rare variant studies for common disease. Developing resources, informatics tools, and innovative approaches and technologies for multiple disease research communities and the wider biomedical research community. The initial focus of the CCDGs will be in cardiovascular disease (early-onset coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, hemorrhagic stroke), neuropsychiatric disease (epilepsy, autism), and autoimmune/inflammatory disease (type 1 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease). The Broad Institute is one of four selected CCDG project centers. Both exome and genotyping information of GMbC participants will help understanding how recruited human populations are structured and genetically related. This human genetic structure will be analyzed in light of gut microbiome compositional and genomic differences to illuminate associations between specific microbiome traits and human groups and the evolutionary processes involved in the co-evolution of human hosts and their gut microbiome. It will also provide variant information for critical genes shaping the composition of microbiomes, such as genes involved in innate and adaptive immunity (e.g. antimicrobial peptides) or in the regulation of the immune response (e.g. Nod2). Association studies between specific variants in these genes and microbiome features will be performed, which will then be validated with in vitro and in vivo experiments. Human data from GMbC cohorts will also increase the genetic diversity of human populations, providing additional variant information for many susceptible loci that were found to be associated with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
The whole genome sequencing data generated is comprised of samples from diverse and indigenous populations. Raw sequencing data, metadata, vcf and phenotype data at the individual level for a subset of the cohort's samples are available at <a href="https://anvilproject.org/data">https://anvilproject.org/data</a>. For questions about availability, contact <a href="mailto:help@lists.anvilproject.org">help@lists.anvilproject.org</a>.
Microbiome data for the samples sequenced in this study can be found in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs002235">phs002235</a> Global Microbiome Conservancy Sequence Data.

The goal of this collaborative, interdisciplinary project is to develop powerful, generalizable approaches for discovering how risk variants for psychiatric disorders shape neurobiological processes at multiple levels of analysis, and to identify the processes whose dysregulation underlies disease.
Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) were used towards the development of these new experimental and inferential systems bridging gaps between human genetics and experimental biology. The largest publicly available collection of iPSCs (2607 lines) has been generated from 2184 donors by the <a href="http://cirm.ca.gov">California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM)</a>. To expand our donor collection, an additional 44 iPSC donors from the McLean_Levy cohort were identified. We wish to share the available SNP data for 2167 CIRM lines and whole genome sequence data generated at the Broad Institute for 473 of the CIRM and 44 McLean_Levy iPSC donors. These data can be used to identify (for experiments) lines with specific genotypes of interest and lines from donors with high or low polygenic risk scores for phenotypes of interest. The data can also be used to identify acquired mutations in the iPSC lines. The CIRM iPSC lines are available through Fujifilm Cellular Dynamics iPSC Repository (<a href="https://www.fujifilmcdi.com/cirm-ipsc-products/">https://www.fujifilmcdi.com/cirm-ipsc-products/</a>). The McLean_Levy lines are available through the NIMH Repository &#x26; Genomics Resource (<a href="https://www.nimhgenetics.org/">https://www.nimhgenetics.org/</a>).
Additional project data registered with the study includes data from an iPSC line derived from an SMA patient (n=1), as well as single-cell RNA sequence data and supplemental processed genomic datasets in support of project publications.
Molecular Datasets
<ul>
<li>**Single-cell RNA-seq: **10X Genomics, Illumina NovaSeq- **Supplemental "cell village" pooled genomic sequence data: **Illumina NextSeq- Whole Genome Genotyping: Infinium Global Screening Array-24 Kit, Illumina HumanCore chip- **Whole Genome Sequencing: **Illumina NovaSeq</li>
</ul>

The genetic basis of coronary artery disease in individuals of non-European ancestry is largely unknown. The Washington University Coronary Artery Disease Study (WUCADS) recruited participants of non-European ancestry with and without coronary artery disease to address this question. Whole genome sequencing in WUCADS was performed at the McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University.

The VIRGO study is a four year research project funded by the NHLBI to study young women and men with heart attacks. A total of 2,000 women who are 18 - 55 years of age and a smaller comparison group of 1,000 similarly aged men will be enrolled in this multi-site observational study from approximately 120 different hospitals across the country. Young women have a much greater risk of dying after an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) than similarly aged men. Their mortality risk is markedly higher than that of young men, and limited data on young minority women suggest that they may have the highest risk of any young subgroup. Findings from the small number of published studies of young women with ischemic heart disease suggest that the biology, epidemiology, care, and outcomes of this group are distinct from those of men. To date, there have been no large studies of this population, even as the death toll is comparable to that from breast cancer in this country. This study will help researchers identify key factors that influence recovery from a heart attack and potentially improve the care and outcomes of young women and men with AMI.
Specific Aims: To investigate the excess risk in young women with AMI and to identify key demographic, clinical, metabolic, psychosocial, health care delivery, and biological determinants of prognosis, we propose a national, prospective, observational study of 2,000 women who are 55 years or younger with AMI and a smaller comparison group of 1,000 men. Our prior work and preliminary studies indicate that the sex differences are most prominent in this age group and suggest that by 1 year after discharge, there are substantial sex differences in outcomes. We will also develop risk stratification tools that will help clinicians to identify young women with the highest and lowest risk.
Specific Aim 1: Determine sex differences in outcomes following AMI. Specific Aim 2: Determine sex differences in the prevalence and prognostic importance of demographic, clinical, and psychosocial risk factors. ** Specific Aim 3:**Determine sex differences in quality of care. Specific Aim 4: Determine sex differences in the prevalence and prognostic importance of selected biochemical biomarkers following AMI. 
These samples have been whole genome sequenced as part of the NHGRI's Center for Common Disease Genetics at the Broad Institute.

In this study, we address the enormous challenges common complex diseases pose for genomic analysis and the enormous opportunities surmounting them offers for advancing healthcare. The common genetic disorders proposed for study here are believed to have extreme locus heterogeneity, requiring the analysis of large numbers of samples to comprehensively identify the genomic variants underlying them. We propose that a combination of deep population studies and joint analysis of SNPs, indels, and structural variants both in coding and noncoding regions will provide the next level of understanding of common genetic disorders. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) will be critical to this next-generation approach to the genomics of complex disease. WGS will need to be accompanied by the technical ability to generate and handle very large data sets, a particular focus and strength of NYGC. WGS will also need to be accompanied by new statistical tools and algorithms, which will be developed by the strong core group committed to this proposal.
An overarching goal of this proposal, one that capitalizes on the power of WGS, is to identify disease-associated variants at the individual nucleotide level. In many cases pathogenic mutations fall in noncoding regions of the genome, which can only be fruitfully explored with WGS. A major effort was put into building new computational strategies to functionally annotate noncoding transcribed sequences, and to build new datasets to enable such strategies, opening new frontiers of understanding of disease-related regulatory variants.

In this study, we address the enormous challenges common complex diseases pose for genomic analysis and the enormous opportunities surmounting them offers for advancing healthcare. The common genetic disorders proposed for study here are believed to have extreme locus heterogeneity, requiring the analysis of large numbers of samples to comprehensively identify the genomic variants underlying them. We propose that a combination of deep population studies and joint analysis of SNPs, indels, and structural variants both in coding and noncoding regions will provide the next level of understanding of common genetic disorders. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) will be critical to this next-generation approach to the genomics of complex disease. WGS will need to be accompanied by the technical ability to generate and handle very large data sets, a particular focus and strength of New York Genome Center (NYGC). WGS will also need to be accompanied by new statistical tools and algorithms, which will be developed by the strong core group committed to this proposal.
An overarching goal of this proposal, one that capitalizes on the power of WGS, is to identify disease-associated variants at the individual nucleotide level. In many cases pathogenic mutations fall in noncoding regions of the genome, which can only be fruitfully explored with WGS. A major effort was put into building new computational strategies to functionally annotate noncoding transcribed sequences, and to build new datasets to enable such strategies, opening new frontiers of understanding of disease-related regulatory variants.

Identification of complex genetic variants including defects in gene regulatory circuits and uncharacterized genes present challenges for rare disease diagnosis. In Genomic Answers for Kids program we apply the joint interpretation of patient genome sequence with genomic endophenotypes to expand the clinically actionable genome among pediatric cases of suspected genetic disease. Our objective is to examine the role of novel and under-interpreted sequence variation by combining complete DNA sequences, personal epigenetic variations and massively parallel functional screens.
To achieve this we perform augmented whole genome sequence (WGS) interpretation including reanalysis of clinical exomes as well as generating WGS for patients with negative exome results all be subject to family-based semi-automated recall pipeline to discover missed diagnostic variation. We use linked-read and long-read sequencing technologies to focus on putative structural variants missed in short-read genome and exome analysis by the optimized integration of linked and long read technologies that also improve identification of transmission patterns of all variants, as well as resolving genomic regions resistant to standard alignment. We also include tissue DNA sequencing to investigate somatic mosaicism.
To further assist with WGS interpretation for uncommon variation we capture snapshots of patient transcriptomes and epigenomes in individual cells using single-cell RNA (scRNA) and sc open chromatin (scATAC) as well as bulk whole genome bisulphite genome sequencing for methylome interpretation. Alternative splicing is functionally assessed in available patient tissues using RNA-seq, including full length cDNA sequences by IsoSeq (PacBio) methodology.
Our overarching goal is an increase rate of diagnostic genomic findings up to two-fold among rare disease, resulting in the majority (>50%) of patient cases resolved by the integrated system developed in our program.

The NYCKidSeq program will significantly advance the implementation of genomic medicine, particularly for children, young adults and their families in Harlem and the Bronx. The study will assess the clinical utility of genomic medicine in three broad areas of pediatric disorders, while engaging a range of providers and community advisors to overcome the well-documented barriers to inclusion of underserved and underrepresented populations in genomic research. The study will also include testing, analyzing, and implementing a novel communication tool, Genomic Understanding, Information and Awareness (GUÍA), to facilitate the return of genomic test results. The use of GUÍA will enhance the understanding of these genomic testing results by families, patients, and care providers at all levels of expertise, in two health systems. Healthcare system leadership will be engaged to provide insights into their readiness for genomic implementation. Overall, the NYCKidSeq program will inform the genomics and clinical communities about how to implement genomic medicine in a diverse population in a clinically useful, technologically savvy, culturally sensitive, and ethically sound manner.

In this study, we address the enormous challenges common complex diseases pose for genomic analysis and the enormous opportunities surmounting them offers for advancing healthcare. The common genetic disorders proposed for study here are believed to have extreme locus heterogeneity, requiring the analysis of large numbers of samples to comprehensively identify the genomic variants underlying them. We propose that a combination of deep population studies and joint analysis of SNPs, indels, and structural variants, both in coding and noncoding regions, will provide the next level of understanding of common genetic disorders. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) will be critical to this next-generation approach to the genomics of complex disease. WGS will need to be accompanied by the technical ability to generate and handle very large data sets, a particular focus and strength of NYGC. WGS will also need to be accompanied by new statistical tools and algorithms, which will be developed by the strong core group committed to this proposal.
An overarching goal of this proposal, one that capitalizes on the power of WGS, is to identify disease-associated variants at the individual nucleotide level. In many cases, pathogenic mutations fall in noncoding regions of the genome, which can only be fruitfully explored with WGS. A major effort was put into building new computational strategies to functionally annotate noncoding transcribed sequences, and to build new datasets to enable such strategies, opening new frontiers of understanding of disease-related regulatory variants.

The Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-organized and funded consortium of U.S. medical research institutions. The primary goal of the eMERGE Network is to develop, disseminate, and apply approaches to research that combine biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for genomic discovery and genomic medicine implementation research. eMERGE was announced in September 2007 and began its third phase in September 2015. eMERGE III consists of nine study sites, two central sequencing and genotyping facilities, and a coordinating center. eMERGE Phase III aims to: 1) sequence and assess the phenotypic implication of rare variants in a custom designed eMERGEseq panel consisting of 109 genes (including 56 ACMG actionable finding list genes and the top 6 genes from each site relevant to their specific aims), as well as approximately 1400 SNPs; 2) assess the phenotypic implications of these variants by developing, validating and implementing new phenotype algorithms, 3) integrate genetic variants into EMRs to inform clinical care; and 4) create community resources. Included in this study are: - ~24,000 eMERGE participants from 10 eMERGE III study sites. - Corresponding demographics, body mass index measurements. - Top PheWAS codes generated from a collated list of ICD codes from all study sites.
Study sites and participants include:
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC): Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) is a not-for-profit hospital and research center pioneering breakthrough treatments, providing outstanding family-centered patient care and training healthcare professionals for the future, and dedicated to improving health and welfare of children and to the shared purpose of discovery and practical application of new genomic information to the ordinary care of children. We bring a comprehensive electronic health record (EPIC), a deidentified i2b2 data warehouse of 680K patient records, a biobank with >261,000 consents that allow return of results to >84,000 patients and guardians who have provided DNA samples, and hundreds of faculty and senior staff who make genomics or informatics an active focus of their research. CCHMC will help the eMERGE III Steering Committee identify genes for the eMERGE III targeted sequencing panel, provide 3,000 DNA samples from CCHMC patients to be sequenced, review targeted gene panels from clinical care at CCHMC for somatic mosaicism and reinterpretation, and further develop and disseminate a software workflow suite for sequence analysis. We will also extend our work generating phenotype algorithms using heuristic and machine learning methods to many new childhood diseases. We will develop tools to evaluate adolescent return of results preferences, examine the ethical and legal obligations and potential to reanalyze results, and develop clinical decision support for phenotyping, test ordering, and returning sequencing results.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP): The Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) is a specialized Center of Emphasis at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and one of the world's largest genetics research programs, with to state-of-the-art high-throughput sequencing and genotyping technology. Our primary goal is to translate basic research findings to medical innovations. We aim to develop new and better ways to diagnose and treat children affected by rare and complex medical disorders, including asthma, autism, epilepsy, pediatric cancer, learning disabilities, and a range of rare diseases. Ultimately, our objective is to generate new diagnostic tests and to guide physicians to the most appropriate therapies. Participants were recruited from the CAG biorepository (n>450,000), specifically from >100,000 CHOP pediatric patients and family members, which is enriched for rare-diseases (n>12,000). Center for Applied Genomics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia We gratefully thank all the children and their families who enrolled in this study, and all individuals who donated blood samples for research purposes. Genotyping for this project was performed at the Center for Applied Genomics and supported by an Institutional Development Award from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Sequencing was supported by the National Institutes of Health through an award from the National Human Genome Research Institute's Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) program (U01HG008684).
Columbia University: The goal of the Columbia eMERGE III project is to develop methods for integrating genomic data in EHRs and to study the impact of such genomic informatics interventions on the health of a diverse, underserved urban adult English- and Spanish-speaking patient population in Northern Manhattan served by Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital system. The study group is 2500 patients recruited from diverse clinics and community outreach centers of self-reported White (~61%), Asian (~11%), African-American (~11%), American Indian/Alaska Native (&#x3C;1%) racial and Hispanic (~33%) ethnic backgrounds. There are two subgroups in the study cohort - a retrospective group (N=1052) that includes patients from oncology and nephrology clinics, and a prospective one (N=1448) that includes healthy individuals as well as participants with diverse medical conditions. Confirmed pathogenic variants in 70 selected genes will be returned to participants and their healthcare providers through the EHR integration. Participants are able to choose the results they receive and will have the freedom to meet with a genetic counselor and a geneticist to review results. The impact of genetic testing on clinical care is determined by periodic monitoring of EHRs.
Geisinger: Samples and phenotype data in this study were provided by the Geisinger MyCode® Community Health Initiative. Participants are recruited across the Geisinger System via online consents or in-person consents at a hospital or clinic visit. Enrollment is ongoing with over 100,000 individuals currently consented.
Partners Healthcare (Harvard University): The Partners HealthCare Biobank is a large research program designed to help researchers understand how people's health is affected by their genes, lifestyle, and environment. This large research data and sample repository provides access to high-quality, consented blood samples to help foster research, advance our understanding of the causes of common diseases, and advance the practice of medicine. For the Partners research community (Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital), the Biobank provides: - Banked samples (plasma, serum, and DNA) collected from consented patients - Blood samples that were discarded after clinical testing in the Crimson Cores maintained in the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital Pathology Departments - Sample handling and preparation services - Link to the biobank data to the Partners Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR) a research instance of our electronic clinical chart - Data access through our research portal.
To date, over 70,000 Partners patients have given their consent to enroll, give a blood sample, receive research results and agreed to be re-contacted for additional research studies. The Biobank has enabled Partners investigators to compete for nationally recognized grants in personalized medicine such as a clinical electronic Medical Records and Genomics network (eMERGE) site and the national All of US program. The Biobank currently supports over 120 Partners investigators and over 130 million dollars in NIH research.
Kaiser Permanente Washington/ (KPWA) / University of Washington (UW): KPWA participants were enrolled in the eMERGE Network through the Northwest Institute of Genetic Medicine (NWIGM) biorepository, and provided the appropriate consent to receive clinically relevant genetic results (N=2,500.) NWIGM is based at the University of Washington and co-managed by the University of Washington and KPWA. The purpose of the NWIGM biorepository is to build infrastructure and resources to carry out a broad range of future genetic research. KPWA members enrolled in the biorepository are asked to provide informed consent to providing a DNA sample for storage in the NWIGM biorepository. The consent is purposefully broad to serve the dual purpose of reducing the burden on researchers who wish to use this biorepository and the IRB committees who will be responsible for reviewing these requests in the future. Participants were eligible if aged 50 - 65 years old at the time of their enrollment into the NWIGM repository, living, enrolled in KPWA's integrated group practice, and had completed an online Health Risk Appraisal. The selection algorithm was based on several data sources from the EHR at KPWA. 1) Demographics - participants with self-reported race as Asian ancestry were prioritized and selected to enrich for non-European ancestry. The KPWA eMERGE cohort includes N=1,245 members of Asian ancestry. 2) Participants were also selected for a history of colorectal cancer (N=1,255), in order to allow us to enrich germline pathogenic variants.
Mayo Clinic: The Return of Actionable Variants Empirical (RAVE) Study was approved by the Mayo Clinic IRB. We recruited 2537 participants from Mayo Clinic biobanks in Rochester, MN, who had hypercholesterolemia or colon polyps, thereby enriching for Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and monogenic causes of colorectal cancer (CRC). Additional eligibility criteria were: 1) residents of Southeast MN who were alive and aged 18-70 years; 2) LDL-C level >155 or >120 mg/dl while on lipid-lowering therapy; 3) no known cause of secondary hyperlipidemia; and 4) no cognitive impairment or dementia that would compromise their ability to give written informed consent. Based on these criteria, we identified 5270 eligible patients and obtained informed consent from 3030 participants. Recruitment was conducted in waves and utilized mailed recruitment packets consisting of a study brochure, a written informed consent form, a baseline psychosocial questionnaire, and a return postage-paid envelope. DNA of 2537 participants was sent for CLIA-certified targeted sequencing of 109 genes including genes associated with FH and CRC. Targeted sequencing and genotyping was performed in a Central Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA)-certified laboratory.
Northwestern University: Samples and data used in this study were obtained from patients from Northwestern Medicine, an integrated healthcare system, formed through a partnership of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Participants include a retrospective cohort from the Northwestern Pharmacogenomics Study, funded through the eMERGE II project, NHGRI (3U01HG006388-02S1) and a prospective cohort from the Genetic Testing and Your Health Study, funded through the eMERGE III project, NHGRI (U01HG008673). Patients were eligible to participate if they were18 years or older and see a physician at Northwestern Medicine. Patients consented to genetic testing and to allow their results to be placed in their electronic medical record.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center: Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) participants were enrolled in the eMERGE Network through the Vanderbilt Genome-Electronic Records (VGER) project. Patients were provided the appropriate consent to receive clinically relevant genetic results (N=2,700). Participants were eligible if aged 21 or over, had a healthcare provider at VUMC, and visited the provider at least 3 times in the past 3 years.
Meharry Medical College: Inclusion of ethnic groups in genomic research is critical to identify possible reasons for health disparities. African-Americans are being enrolled in various outpatient clinics of Nashville General Hospital at Meharry, an inner city hospital primary serving a poorer patient group. A total of 500 African Americans with four cancer types demonstrating health disparities in this population - prostate, colon, breast, lung are identified and approached by clinical research coordinators. The purpose of the study is to determine if any genetic information can be identified from these patients who have or are at high risk of one of these disparate cancers. All participants provide written informed consent and HIPAA authorization to provide blood samples for broad research use and permission to access data in their hospital electronic medical record for research now and in the future. An extensive demographic profile is obtained and entered into a REDCap database. Blood samples are obtained for a panel of alleles from extracted DNA at Baylor. In addition, de-identified coded samples are processed and stored in a central biorepository for further DNA, RNA and proteomic analyses. The survey and phlebotomy are performed at the time of the initial contact and agreement to participate. Nearly all patients approached willingly agree to participate for potential benefit to themselves, family members, or humankind. Little concern is voiced of providing samples for genetic analysis. Study investigators will share results with the participants and providers if testing does not indicate high risk. Results indicating increased risk or actionable alleles for the patient and/or family will be returned by a genetic counselor. Monitoring of the patients' health in this cohort will continue to be followed in the EMR to identify any future associations that might explain health disparities in African Americans. Proposals will be reviewed from investigators to study the genetic or proteomic samples as well as the clinical and demographic information in the repository.
Please note that this version of the dataset has a handful of mismatches between genotyped and provided sex. Data with the following IDs should be removed prior to analysis: |42025287|42137441|42412243|42456938|42456946|42672223
 <table></table>

From 2012-2021, <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> was home to one of four national centers created by the <a href="https://www.nih.gov/">National Institutes of Health</a> (NIH) to study the genetics of rare inherited diseases. Researchers at <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a>, <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a>, the <a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/">Broad Institute</a> and a center operated jointly by <a href="https://www.baylor.edu/">Baylor University</a> and <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> analyzed the genomes of thousands of patients who suffer from more than 6,000 rare Mendelian disorders affecting more than 25 million individuals in United States.
The <a href="http://mendelian.org/">Centers for Mendelian Genomics</a> (CMG) applied next-generation sequencing and computational approaches to discover the genes and variants that underlie Mendelian disorders. The discovery of new genes that cause Mendelian conditions expanded our understanding about their biology to facilitate their diagnosis, and potentially indicate new treatments.
The <a href="http://mendelian.org/">CMG</a> provided free exome sequencing and analysis to collaborating investigators for qualified phenotypes.

The Center for Genomic Psychiatry at the University of Southern California (USC) and an extensive network of academic medical centers have created the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort (GPC). The GPC consists of a large clinical cohort of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and healthy controls. The pilot phase of whole genome sequencing of the GPC has been done in collaboration with the USC and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Whole genome sequencing (20X) and analysis of 9,033 well-phenotyped individuals from the Genomic Psychiatry Cohort (GPC), divided among schizophrenia cases, bipolar disorder cases, and psychiatrically normal controls, and comprised of European-Ancestry (EA), African-Ancestry (AA), and Latino individuals. The combination of clinically well-characterized GPC participants and whole genome sequencing with rich functional annotation aims to identify functional variants associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder risk. Over half of the sequenced samples are patients with a diagnosis of either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The majority of the study participants are of African American ancestry, increasing the diversity of sampling for these important diseases in traditionally understudied populations.
This data set also contains 545 samples that have undergone 10x Genomics Linked-Read Sequencing (169 participants overlapping with the 9,033 participant WGS 20X dataset). In addition to the benefits due to disease phenotyping and ancestry selection that apply to all of the WGSPD Project 1 samples, the 10x Genomics Linked-Read samples, through the use of barcodes that can identify the long input DNA fragment that each sequencing read was generated from, can be used to 1) identify structural variants that are difficult to call with standard short read data, 2) map short reads to repetitive regions of the genome that cannot be assayed with standard short reads, and provide highly accurate phasing information about genetic variants, including rare variants that are more difficult to phase using statistical phasing techniques.

MAS-ISO-seq is a novel technique for programmably concatenating cDNAs into single molecules for optimal long-read sequencing. In practice, this boosts throughput >15 fold to nearly 40 million cDNA reads per run on the PacBio Sequel IIe sequencer. We have validated this method via application to synthetic RNA isoforms and single-cell sequencing of tumor-infiltrating T cells. Results demonstrated a >30 fold boosted discovery of differentially spliced genes and robust cell clustering, as well as canonical PTPRC splicing patterns across T cell subpopulations and the concerted expression of the associated hnRNPLL splicing factor.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive loss of brain and spinal cord motor neurons. Half of ALS patients display cognitive symptoms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD); reciprocally, about 40% of FTD patients show motor neuron deficits, and approximately 15% develop overt ALS. The clinical overlap between ALS and FTD means that the two conditions are thought to represent a disease spectrum (ALS/FTD).
In recent years, the identification of several genetic causes of ALS/FTD has contributed significantly to our understanding of disease pathogenesis. Unfortunately, one-third of the underlying genetic causes of familial cases and ~90% of sporadic cases of ALS/FTD remain unexplained. As such, there is a dire need to identify additional genetic factors contributing to ALS/FTD. Such studies require huge cohorts of harmonized whole genome sequencing (WGS) data sets from cases and controls.
Currently, there are several major ongoing sequencing efforts for ALS patients. Numerous centers lead to inefficiency, especially in terms of overall costs. At a minimum, this includes the cost of high-performance computing, the storage of large data files, and the duplication of effort between groups. This lack of data harmonization between groups precludes sharing of genetic information and weakens collaborative efforts. The cost and logistics are also a barrier to attracting talented investigators to the ALS/FTD field.
To overcome this unmet need, we have founded the ALS Compute project. We are centralizing the storage of ALS/FTD WGS data from every significant sequencing effort in the United States and beyond within a single Cloud environment. This approach will facilitate data harmonization and improve accessibility to the data. To accomplish this, we have made the data and the computational infrastructure available via the Terra platform hosted by NHGRI's Genomic Data Science Analysis, Visualization, and Informatics Lab-Space (AnVIL). This will allow researchers worldwide to access this wealth of data, develop new theories of the disease, and yield breakthroughs in our understanding of ALS/FTD.

The North Carolina Clinical Genomic Evaluation by Next-gen Exome Sequencing, 2 (NCGENES 2) study is part of a larger consortium project investigating the clinical utility, or net benefit of an intervention on patient and family well-being as well as diagnostic efficacy, management planning, and medical outcomes. A clinical trial will be implemented to compare (1) first-line exome sequencing to usual care and (2) participant pre-visit preparation to no pre-visit preparation. The study will use a randomized controlled design, with 2x2 factorial design, coupled with patient-reported outcomes and comprehensive clinical data collection addressing key outcomes, to determine the net impact of diagnostic results and secondary findings.

Through this Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research (CSER) with Enhanced Diversity project we are completing a clinical study (The Texas KidsCanSeq Study) comparing the results of targeted cancer panel sequencing versus genome-scale testing in pediatric cancer patients across diverse clinical settings. We will compare the targeted pediatric cancer panel to germline whole exome sequencing (WES) of unselected childhood cancer patients. We will also compare an RNA/DNA targeted pediatric cancer panel versus WES, transcriptome sequencing and copy number array of FFPE tumor samples for the subset of patients with high-risk tumors. Exome sequencing is performed from a blood or saliva sample of the pediatric age (0-18) patient. We are building on our success completing the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs001026">CSER program BASIC3</a> exome sequencing trial (which included 60% Hispanic and African-American patients from a single large academic center) in this large multi-institutional study of an even more diverse patient population from six pediatric oncology healthcare settings across Texas. Data from the Texas KidsCanSeq study will be submitted through the CSER Data Coordinating Center for access in NIH-supported databases.

This study contains whole genome sequence data. A case-control sample of individuals from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL), a multicenter prospective cohort study of 16,415 persons of Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central American, and South American background (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000810">phs000810</a>), was selected for whole genome sequencing, including participants with a history of physician-diagnosed asthma and asthma-free participants.

The NHGRI GREGoR (Genomics Research to Elucidate the Genetics of Rare Disease) Consortium was established in June 2021 with the goal of developing novel tools and approaches to advance the discovery of the genetic basis of rare conditions. Numerous types of molecular data are generated in GREGoR and available on the AnVIL cloud platform via dbGaP application, including short- and long-read genome and exome sequencing, transcriptomics, metabolomics, methylomics, and proteomics. De-identified clinical and demographic data is obtained, with a focus on standardized ontologies.
The Consortium comprises five Research Centers (RCs - see below), a Data Coordinating Center (DCC), and various partner members and external collaborators.
**Baylor College of Medicine Research Center (BCM-GREGoR) **
The Baylor College of Medicine GREGoR program, which is part of the GREGoR consortium, enrolls individuals, families, and cohorts with suspected rare disease across a range of syndromic and non-syndromic phenotypes. Subjects are enrolled from national and international collaborating physician referrals. Subjects provide written informed consent for future re-contact. Data generated and shared include family structure, detailed phenotypes, exome or short-read genome data, and in some cases long-read genome or RNA-sequencing, and these are shared upon completion of standard quality control checks and annotation.
**Broad Institute (Broad) **
The Broad Center for Mendelian Genomics, part of the GREGoR consortium uses next-generation sequencing (exome, genome, transcriptome, and long read sequencing), computational approaches, and functional studies to discover the variants and genes that underlie Mendelian conditions with a particularly focus on neuromuscular, neurodevelopmental, and syndromic phenotypes. Samples come from collaborators and direct enrollment through the Rare Genomes Project and we are committed to rapid data sharing without an embargo period.
**University of California, Irvine (UCI-GREGoR) **
To accelerate the pace of Mendelian disease gene discovery and clinical implementation, we propose a Mendelian Genomics Research Center, part of the GREGoR Consortium, leveraging the broad pediatric and adult clinical and research expertise at Children's National Hospital and University of California, Irvine. Our goal is to develop best practices to increase the diagnostic yield of rare diseases, engage the community to reduce health disparities for complex diagnoses, while creating a dataset accessible to all. Our Center will unite world class experts combining basic and translational research with innovative approaches to phenotyping, variant identification and functional investigation of both coding and non-coding sequence changes with the goals of discovering novel Mendelian gene variations and identifying variants not detected on current sequencing pipelines, disambiguating uncertain variants into disease-causing versus benign categorizations, and sharing information by working collaboratively with the GREGoR community.
**GREGoR Stanford Site (GSS) **
The goal of the GREGoR Stanford Site (GSS) is to provide a platform for functional genomics research and validation to improve diagnosis in Mendelian disease. Participants included individuals with undiagnosed suspected Mendelian disease who had non-diagnostic exome sequencing and their immediate family members. Participants and their family members provided written, informed consent and biological samples from which DNA, RNA, plasma, fibroblasts, PBMCs and other cell types were generated and stored. Samples from research participants and their immediate family members may have undergone short and long-read genome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing, metabolomics and/or lipidomics profiling, methyl-capture-sequencing and ATAC-sequencing. De-identified clinical data extracted from participant medical records are linked to the samples.
**University of Washington Center for Rare Disease Research (UW-CRDR) **
The goals of the University of Washington Center for Rare Disease Research are to: (1) maximize novel gene discovery for Mendelian conditions by recruitment, short- and long-read whole genome sequencing, transcriptome sequencing and analysis of families with rare conditions for which the gene is either unknown or the gene is known but no pathogenic variant can be identified via clinical testing; (2) develop new strategies for gene discovery for Mendelian conditions caused by variants that are difficult to detect using conventional testing strategies, variants of unknown function effect (e.g., regulatory, structural variants) or have unusual modes of inheritance; and (3) implement high-throughput screening and targeted follow-up functional studies to prioritize and validate candidate non-coding variants. De-identified data and phenotypic information are shared via MyGene2, ClinVar, and AnViL.

NABEC: North American Brain Expression Consortium cohort utilizes a series of control brain samples that have been studied for over a decade. Several genomic assays have already been performed on this cohort including: RNA sequencing, array genotyping, short-read sequencing, CAGE sequencing, and more. Here we add an additional genomic assay to this resource by performing Oxford Nanopore Long-Read Whole-Genome Sequencing. Oxford Nanopore Long-Read sequencing allows the detection of structural variants and genome-wide methylation values. This cohort is processed with the aim of having >30X coverage, and an N50 read distribution of 25kb. FAST5 (raw data) and fastq (processed data) will be made available to qualified researchers.

The overall aim of this study is to discover of novel genetic elements associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Towards this goal, we have performed exome and whole genome sequencing for over 2000 samples. This data will be process and harmonized to yield high quality variant calling. These variants will be combined with control cohorts to identify novel genetic elements associated with ALS through case: control analyses.

The Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-organized and funded consortium of U.S. medical research institutions. The primary goal of the eMERGE Network is to develop, disseminate, and apply approaches to research that combine biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for genomic discovery and genomic medicine implementation research. eMERGE was announced in June 2007 and began its third phase in September 2015. eMERGE Phase III (June 2015 - June 2020) consists of 10 study sites, two central sequencing and genotyping facilities, and a coordinating center.
Included in this study are: - Human Reference Consortium (HRC) single nucleotide variants and 1000 Genomes structural variants imputed array data of 105,108 eMERGE participants from nine Phase III study sites and three Phase II study site collaborators. - Corresponding demographics, body mass index measurements. - Case/control status for the following phenotypes: Abdominal aortic aneurysm; Ace-Inhibitor/Cough; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Age-related macular disease; Appendicitis; Asthma; Atopic Dermatitis; Autism; Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia; Carotid artery disease as a Quantitative Measure; caMRSA; Cataract; Clostridium difficile colitis; Extreme Obesity; Chronic Kidney Disease; Chronic Kidney Disease and Type 2 Diabetes; Chronic Kidney Disease, Type 2 Diabetes and Hypertension; Colon Polyps; Cardiorespiratory Fitness; Dementia; Diverticulosis; Diabetic retinopathy; Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease; Glaucoma; Height; Heart failure; Hypothyroidism; Lipids; Ocular hypertension; Peripheral Arterial Disease; QRS duration; Red blood cell indices; Remission of Diabetes after ROUX-EN-Y gastric bypass surgery; Resistant hypertension; MACE while on Statins; Type 2 Diabetes; Venous Thromboembolism; White blood cell indices; and Zoster virus infection.
Study sites and participants include:
Boston Children's Hospital: The Gene Partnership (TGP) is a prospective longitudinal registry at Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) to study the genetic and environmental contributions to childhood health and disease, collect genetic information on a large number of children who have been phenotyped, and implement the Informed Cohort and the Informed Cohort Oversight Board (ICOB). The term "The Gene Partnership" reflects a partnership between researchers and participants. Children seen at BCH are offered enrollment, as are their parents and siblings. DNA is collected on all enrollees. BCH has a comprehensive EMR system, and virtually all inpatient and outpatient data are captured electronically. Clinical data in the BCH EMR is loaded in the i2b2 data warehouse which is available to investigators. Cases, phenotypes, and covariates are ascertained using the i2b2 database. Participants at BCH in TGP have consented to receive any research result and/or incidental finding that arises from studies using TGP that is approved by the Informed Cohort Oversight Board (ICOB) and is in accordance with the participants'preferences;results are returned through the Personally Controlled Health Record (PCHR). BCH and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) have partnered as the Pediatric Alliance for Genomic and Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Research (PAGER) site for the eMERGE Phase II network for pediatric institutions, and the cohort for eMERGE at BCH is TGP.
Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP): The Center for Applied Genomics (CAG) at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a high-throughput, highly automated genotyping and sequencing facility equipped with state-of-the-art genotyping and sequencing platforms. Children who are treated at the Children's Hospital Healthcare Network and their parents may be eligible to take part in a major initiative to collect more than 100,000 blood samples, covering a wide range of pediatric diseases. A large majority of participants consenting to prospective genomic analyses also consent to analysis of their de-identified electronic health records (EHRs). EHRs are longitudinal, with a mean duration of 6.5 years.
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center/Boston's Children's Hospital (CCHMC/BCH): Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) is a pediatric institution dedicated to improving health and welfare of children and to the discovery and practical application of new genomic information to the ordinary care of children. CCHMC brings an extraordinary faculty to eMERGE III who are committed to gain a better understanding of the genesis of disease and to elucidate the mechanisms of diseases that afflict children, specifically pediatric disease phenotypes that will leverage the available eMERGE adult genomic data and electronic medical records (EMRs) to discover meaningful use results. Generation of EMR phenotype algorithms, informed by natural language processing, using heuristic and machine learning methods is ongoing. CCHMC has developed tools to evaluate adolescent return of results preferences, examined the ethical and legal obligations and potential to reanalyze results, and developed clinical decision support for phenotyping, test ordering, and returning sequencing results. The success of these eMERGE III studies is enhanced by the ongoing institutional investment made in the CCHMC Biobank, the comprehensive EMR (EPIC), the i2b2 de-identified medical record data warehouse, and hundreds of faculty and senior staff who make genomics or informatics an active focus of their research.
Columbia University: Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian (CUMC/NYP) Hospital system is one of the nation's largest and most comprehensive hospital systems with over 2 million inpatient and outpatient yearly visits that serves a racially and ethnically diverse urban patient population. The Columbia University GENomic Integration with EHR (GENIE) research study contributed and shared phenotype and genotype data for individuals who were recruited as part of a diverse array of initiatives within the hospital, including Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS), Pediatric Cardiac Genomic Consortium (PCGC), Caribbean Hispanics with Familial and Sporadic Late Onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP), and Genetics of Chronic Kidney Disease study. Some of these individuals had kidney or neurological problems, some were healthy adult volunteers with self-reported health status information from the medically underserved Northern Manhattan community, and others were pediatric patients with cardiac conditions. For the kidney disease cohort, patients with the diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and healthy controls were recruited to the Columbia University CKD biobank. For the NOMAS cohort, eligible participants were stroke-free, were 40 years old, and resided for at least 3 months in a Northern Manhattan household with a telephone. The PCGC study recruited parent-offspring trios with pediatric probands diagnosed with congenital heart defects (CHD). For the Caribbean Hispanics with Alzheimer's disease project, individuals from families affected by AD and with sporadic AD were recruited, along with unrelated controls. Samples for the ADSP study have been selected from well-characterized cohorts of individuals with AD diagnosis.
Geisinger Health System: A research cohort of adult Geisinger Clinic patients was enrolled from community-based primary care clinics of the Geisinger Health System. Patients were eligible for enrollment if they were a primary care patient of a Geisinger Clinic physician and were scheduled for a non-emergent clinic visit. All participants provided written informed consent and HIPAA authorization. Consenting patients agreed to provide blood samples for broad biomedical research use, and permission to access data in their Geisinger electronic medical record for research. The enrollment rate was 90% of patients approached. The demographics of the cohort approximate those of the Geisinger Clinic outpatient population. Research blood samples were collected during an outpatient clinical phlebotomy encounter. Research blood samples are coded and stored in a central biorepository. Samples are linkable to clinical data in a de-identified manner for research via an IRB-approved data broker process. For genomic analysis, DNA is extracted from EDTA-anticoagulated whole blood.
Partners Health Care (Harvard): The Partners HealthCare Biobank is a large research program designed to help researchers understand how people's health is affected by their genes, lifestyle, and environment. This large research data and sample repository provides access to high-quality, consented blood samples to help foster research, advance our understanding of the causes of common diseases, and advance the practice of medicine. For the Partners research community (Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital), the Biobank provides: - Banked samples (plasma, serum, and DNA) collected from consented patients - Blood samples that were discarded after clinical testing in the Crimson Cores maintained in the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital Pathology Departments - Sample handling and preparation services - Link to the biobank data to the Partners Research Patient Data Registry (RPDR) a research instance of our electronic clinical chart - Data access through our research portal. To date, over 60,000 Partners patients have given their consent to enroll, give a blood sample, receive research results and agreed to be re-contacted for additional research studies. The Biobank has enabled Partners investigators to compete for nationally recognized grants in personalized medicine such as a clinical electronic Medical Records and Genomics network (eMERGE) site and the national All of US program. The Biobank currently supports over 120 Partners investigators and over 100 million dollars in NIH research.
Kaiser Permanente Washington with the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: KPWA participants were enrolled in the eMERGE Network through the Northwest Institute of Genetic Medicine (NWIGM) biorepository, and provided the appropriate consent to receive clinically relevant genetic results (N~8,073.) NWIGM is based at the University of Washington and co-managed by the University of Washington and KPWA. The purpose of the NWIGM biorepository is to build infrastructure and resources to carry out a broad range of future genetic research. KPWA members enrolled in the biorepository are asked to provide informed consent to providing a DNA sample for storage in the NWIGM biorepository. The consent is purposefully broad to serve the dual purpose of reducing the burden on researchers who wish to use this biorepository and the IRB committees who will be responsible for reviewing these requests in the future. Participants were eligible if aged 50 - 65 years old at the time of their enrollment into the NWIGM repository, living, enrolled in KPWA's integrated group practice, and had completed an online Health Risk Appraisal. The selection algorithm was based on several data sources from the EHR at KPWA. 1) Demographics - participants with self-reported race as Asian ancestry were prioritized and selected to enrich for non-European ancestry. The KPWA eMERGE cohort includes n=1,245 members of Asian ancestry. 2) Participants were also selected for a history of colorectal cancer (n=1,002), in order to allow us to enrich germline pathogenic variants.
Essentia Institute of Rural Health, Marshfield Clinic, Pennsylvania State University (Marshfield): The Marshfield Clinic Personalized Medicine Research Project is a population-based biobank in central Wisconsin with more than 20,000 adult subjects who provided written, informed consent to access their medical records and provided a blood sample from which DNA was extracted and plasma and serum stored. In addition to an average of 30 years of medical history data, a questionnaire about environmental exposures, including a detailed food frequency questionnaire, is available to facilitate gene/environment studies.
Mayo Clinic: The Mayo Vascular Disease Biorepository is a disease-specific biobank for vascular diseases including peripheral arterial disease (PAD). PAD patients were identified from individuals referred to the non-invasive vascular laboratory for lower extremity arterial evaluation. Since 1997, laboratory findings have been recorded into an electronic database employing an in-house software package for data archiving and retrieval;this data becomes part of the Mayo EMR. Patients referred to the center with suspected PAD undergo a comprehensive non-invasive evaluation including the ankle-brachial index (ABI) - the ratio of blood pressure measured in the upper arms divided by blood pressure measured at the ankles. Controls subjects are identified from patients referred to the Cardiovascular Health Clinic for stress ECG. The prevalence of PAD in patients with normal exercise capacity who do not have inducible ischemia on the stress ECG , was &#x3C;1%. Data regarding risk factors for atherosclerosis such as diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and smoking are ascertained from the EMR. Case control study of venous thromboembolism (PI John Heit) Controls from a case control study of pancreatic cancer (PI Gloria Petersen) Mayo Clinic Biobank.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai School (Mt. Sinai): The Institute for Personalized Medicine (IPM) Biobank Project is a consented, EMR-linked medical care setting biorepository of the Mount Sinai Medical Center (MSMC) drawing from a population of over 70,000 inpatients and 800,000 outpatient visits annually. MSMC serves diverse local communities of upper Manhattan, including Central Harlem (86% African American), East Harlem (88% Hispanic Latino), and Upper East Side (88% Caucasian/white) with broad health disparities. IPM Biobank populations include 28% African American (AA), 38% Hispanic Latino (HL) predominantly of Caribbean origin, 23% Caucasian/White (CW). IPM Biobank disease burden is reflective of health disparities with broad public health impact: average body mass index of 28.9 and frequencies of hypertension (55%), hypercholesterolemia (32%), diabetes (30%), coronary artery disease (25%), chronic kidney disease (23%), among others. Biobank operations are fully integrated in clinical care processes, including direct recruitment from clinical sites, waiting areas and phlebotomy stations by dedicated Biobank recruiters independent of clinical care providers, prior to or following a clinician standard of care visit. Recruitment currently occurs at a broad spectrum of over 30 clinical care sites.
Northwestern University: The NUgene Project is a repository with longitudinal medical information from participating patients at affiliated hospitals and outpatient clinics from the Northwestern University Medical Center. Participants'DNA samples are coupled with data from a self-reported questionnaire and continuously updated data from our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) representing actual clinical care events. Northwestern has a state-of-the art, comprehensive inpatient and outpatient EMR system of over 2 million patients. NUgene has broad access to participant data for all outpatient visits as well as inpatient data via a consolidated data warehouse. NUgene participants consent to distribution and use of their coded DNA samples and data for a broad range of genetic research by third-party investigators.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center: BioVU, Vanderbilt's DNA databank, was designed as an enabling resource for exploration of the relationships among genetic variation, disease susceptibility, and variable drug responses. BioVU acquires DNA from discarded blood samples collected from routine patient care. The biobank is linked to de-identified clinical data extracted from Vanderbilt's EMR, which forms the basis for phenotype definitions used in genotype-phenotype correlations. BioVU is currently the largest single site DNA collection world-wide, at >235,000 samples as of spring 2017.

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded the Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG), a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to common disease phenotypes and to better understand the general principles of genomic architecture underlying common, complex inherited diseases.
This study contains variant calls derived from the whole genome sequence data of an early-onset coronary artery disease case-control cohort selected from Emory University Cardiovascular Biobank. Case status was assigned based on the presence of myocardial infarction, coronary artery stenosis greater than 70% in at least one coronary artery, and/or revascularization (coronary angioplasty with or without stent placement or coronary artery bypass grafting) at an early age. For these samples "early age" is defined as men 60 years of age or younger and women 70 years of age or younger. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded the Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG), a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to common disease phenotypes and to better understand the general principles of genomic architecture underlying common, complex inherited diseases.

SouthSeq, part of the Clinical Sequencing Evidence-Generating Research (<a href="https://www.genome.gov/Funded-Programs-Projects/Clinical-Sequencing-Evidence-Generating-Research-CSER2">CSER2</a>) effort, aims to perform genome sequencing for infants in nurseries at hospitals in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky. SouthSeq aims to sequence 600 newborn babies presenting with congenital anomalies, or other signs of a rare genetic disorder. The primary goals of SouthSeq are to provide early diagnoses to children with rare genetic conditions, to demonstrate the utility of genome sequencing as a frontline test with potential to improve intermediate and long-term clinical outcomes, and to equip non-genetics providers to deliver test results in order to facilitate the conduction of genome sequencing outside of major medical centers where patients may not have access to a genetics provider. SouthSeq also aims to ensure that genomic testing is applied across diverse communities; recruitment efforts focus on patients from rural and minority populations that have been historically under-represented in both medicine and genomics research. 
Sequencing and analysis for SouthSeq are being conducted at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama (<a href="https://www.hudsonalpha.org/">https://www.hudsonalpha.org/</a>). Enrollment of infants with signs of genetic disease is approved at five clinical sites, including nurseries at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Woman's Hospital in Baton Rouge, Children's Hospital in New Orleans, and the University of Louisville. Both biological parents are enrolled when available so that follow-up testing can be performed to determine inheritance. Further, participant families may choose to opt-into return of secondary findings identified in the proband, which focus on pathogenic and likely pathogenic variation identified within ACMG SFv3.0 genes.

Lay Description
The aim of the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) Project is to increase our understanding of how changes in our genes affect human health and disease with the ultimate goal of improving health care for future generations. GTEx will create a database that researchers can use to study how inherited changes in genes lead to common diseases.
GTEx researchers are studying genes in different tissues obtained from many different people. The GTEx project also includes a study of the GTEx donor consent process - this study will help ensure that the consent process and other aspects of the project effectively address the concerns and expectations of participants in the study. GTEx is a pioneering project that uses state-of-the-art protocols for obtaining and storing a large range of organs and tissues, and for testing them in the lab. Until now, no project has analyzed genetic variation and expression in as many tissues from the same person in such a large population as planned for GTEx.
Scientific Description
Understanding the role of variation in the human genome is crucial to elucidating genetic contributions to human health and disease. Despite the results of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) documenting strong statistical associations between genetic variation and human traits, the functional role for most of these variants is largely unexplained. Nearly 90% of these GWAS-implicated sites lie outside of protein-coding sequences, suggesting that these variants might regulate gene expression.
The goal of the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project is to establish a resource database and tissue biobank in which to study the relationship between genetic variation and gene expression and other molecular phenotypes in reference/non-diseased tissues. The ultimate resource will include approximately 960 post-mortem donors with several dozen tissues from each, a resource large enough to study both cis- and trans- gene expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). Some tissue will also be banked for additional molecular analyses. To request biosamples, please see the <a href="http://www.gtexportal.org/home/samplesPage">Biobank page</a> for more information.
GTEx was initially funded as a 2-year pilot project by the NIH Common Fund (CF) in 2010, and has been scaled up after demonstration of feasibility. The project will collect and analyze RNA levels in many different human tissues and each donor will be characterized for germline genetic variation through dense genotyping arrays and sequencing of either whole exomes or whole genomes.
By treating RNA expression levels as quantitative traits, eQTLs will be identified as sites containing genetic variation that correlate with changes in RNA expression. Such eQTLs have been associated with 4%-12% of expressed human genes, and with common complex human diseases, including obesity, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease, and asthma. Additionally, few studies have examined the tissue specificity of eQTLs. A subset of banked tissue samples will also be analyzed for other molecular phenotypes, such as DNA methylation, DNaseI hypersensitivity sites, and proteomics. The GTEx project will thus serve as a resource database and tissue bank for many future studies, especially for understanding the functional basis of inherited susceptibility to disease.
All GTEx releases since Version 5 follow the NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) Policy whereby there are no restrictions on use or publication after release. Additional information about the GTEx Data Release and Publication policy can be found on the GTEx Data Portal at <a href="http://www.gtexportal.org">www.gtexportal.org</a>.

ClinSeq is a pilot project to investigate the use of whole-genome sequencing as a tool for clinical research. By piloting the acquisition of large amounts of DNA sequence data from individual human subjects, we are fostering the development of hypothesis-generating approaches for performing research in genomic medicine, including the exploration of issues related to the genetic architecture of disease, implementation of genomic technology, informed consent, disclosure of genetic information, and archiving, analyzing, and displaying sequence data. In the initial phase of ClinSeq, we are enrolling roughly 1000 participants; the evaluation of each includes obtaining a detailed family and medical history, as well as a clinical evaluation. The participants are being consented broadly for research on many traits and for whole-genome sequencing. Initially, Sanger-based sequencing of 300-400 genes thought to be relevant to atherosclerosis is being performed, with the resulting data analyzed for rare, high-penetrance variants associated with specific clinical traits. The participants are also being consented to allow the contact of family members for additional studies of sequence variants to explore their potential association with specific phenotypes. Here, we present the general considerations in designing ClinSeq, preliminary results based on the generation of an initial 826 Mb of sequence data, the findings for several genes that serve as positive controls for the project, and our views about the potential implications of ClinSeq. The early experiences with ClinSeq illustrate how large-scale medical sequencing can be a practical, productive, and critical component of research in genomic medicine. Reprinted from Genome Res. 2009 Sep; 19(9): 1665-1674, with permission from Genome Research, PMID: <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19602640">19602640</a>.

Congenital abnormalities and developmental disorders affect 3-5% of live born infants and children. Despite advances in both pre- and post-natal treatment, the utility of genetic testing in diagnosing the etiology underlying such conditions in order to guide management has been frustratingly limited. Traditional genetic testing with specific gene tests, or even gene panels, is diagnostic in only a small percentage of cases. Recent technological advances in next generation sequencing (NGS) have led to the ability to sequence and interpret the entire exome relatively quickly, allowing a diagnosis in 25-30% or more of cases of developmental disorders when other genetic tests have not yielded a result.
Although whole exome sequencing (WES) holds great promise for improved diagnosis leading to better clinical outcomes, challenges remain in determining how best to apply and utilize sequence data. Fulfilling the promise of WES also requires investigation of ELSI (ethical, legal, social) concerns, given skepticism in some communities that research will benefit them; economic considerations that ultimately determine access to and equitable use of WES; and a need to share clinical genetic results with families and across health care systems to enable better prognostication and management of rare conditions in community settings. We propose a Program in Prenatal and Pediatric Genomic Sequencing (P3EGS) at UCSF to examine the diagnostic and clinical utility of WES. P3EGS will recruit and study affected individuals and their parents, including pregnancies in which the fetus has a confirmed structural anomaly and children with previously undiagnosed developmental disorders that are likely of genetic etiology. Following consent and collection of standardized phenotypic data, the families will undergo WES as part of clinical care. To achieve diversity, patient ascertainment and recruitment will occur at four UCSF sites that serve a broad range of underrepresented minorities (target of 75%) and span the full socio-economic spectrum, including the underserved. Our specific aims will: 1) examine the clinical utility of WES, including assessment of a variety of health-related and reproductive outcomes, in undiagnosed individuals; 2) address ethical, social and economic issues in the delivery of genomic sequencing results to ancestrally and economically diverse populations through (2.1) a mixed methods, longitudinal empirical study of clinical interactions and experiences, (2.2) an economic analysis of insurance coverage, price and reimbursement of multigene tests, and (2.3) creation of an Ethics Advisory Board to respond to emerging issues and establishment of authentic stakeholder engagement; and 3) pilot a user-friendly web-based patient/provider application integrating genomic and clinical data as a shared evidence base to support result communication, interpretation and clinical decision making; the application will be based on the “Bioscreen” model created and successfully implemented at UCSF.

In this study, we address the enormous challenges common complex diseases pose for genomic analysis and the enormous opportunities surmounting them offers for advancing healthcare. The common genetic disorders proposed for study are believed to have extreme locus heterogeneity, requiring the analysis of large numbers of samples to comprehensively identify the genomic variants underlying them. We propose that a combination of deep population studies and joint analysis of SNPs, indels, and structural variants, both in coding and noncoding regions, will provide the next level of understanding of common genetic disorders. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) will be critical to this next-generation approach to the genomics of complex disease. WGS will need to be accompanied by the technical ability to generate and handle very large data sets, a particular focus and strength of NYGC. WGS will also need to be accompanied by new statistical tools and algorithms, which will be developed by the strong core group committed to this proposal. An overarching goal of this proposal, one that capitalizes on the power of WGS, is to identify disease-associated variants at the individual nucleotide level. In many cases, pathogenic mutations fall in noncoding regions of the genome, which can only be fruitfully explored with WGS. A major effort was put into building new computational strategies to functionally annotate noncoding transcribed sequences, and to build new datasets to enable such strategies, opening new frontiers of understanding of disease-related regulatory variants.

Modern genetic studies have been conducted predominantly in cohorts of individuals of European ancestry. By 2010, there were approximately ten times as many published genome wide association studies (GWAS) in people of European ancestry than studies in people of all other ancestries combined. This research disparity has led to an uneven understanding of the genetic basis underlying disease in Europeans and non-Europeans. 23andMe's web-based, large scale research model is ideal for scaling genetics research within non-European populations and thereby bringing more parity to genetics research. Our database is composed of genotypes and phenotypes of over 1,000,000 consenting customers, including over 200,000 individuals with non-European ancestry. The data derived from non-European individuals represent a particularly valuable resource for genetic discovery of novel variants that may not be found in the European population. However, research studies in non-European populations are weakened by the lack of availability of large-scale reference datasets and, in particular, genotype imputation panels. Genotype imputation is a statistical methodology that uses observations of genotypes in a large reference panel to infer unobserved genotypes in a target dataset. This methodology is widely used within GWAS, and allows novel genetic associations to be identified and refined. Due to this utility, very large reference panels have been constructed, containing thousands or tens of thousands of whole genome sequences. Unfortunately, the largest imputation panels are composed of predominantly European genomes, reflecting the modern bias towards European studies in GWAS. This proposal aims to address this imbalance by constructing an imputation panel specifically for the African American population. In doing so, we will expand 23andMe's ability to perform genetic discovery in non-European populations, and improve the understanding of global genetic variation underlying diseases and traits. Key commercial outcomes of the research include the identification of novel genetic targets for internal and external therapeutic development. The long-term aim is to improve understanding of disease in minority populations, which we hope may eventually lead to improved treatments of disease in these historically medically understudied groups.

This study is a part of NHGRI's Center for Common Disease Genomics, a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to multiple common disease phenotypes. Current estimates anticipate that the CCDG program will perform whole genome sequencing of 140K individuals and whole exome sequencing of 225K individuals over the course of the project.
The Cardiovascular Disease working group of the CCDG considered five diseases: early-onset coronary artery disease (EOCAD), stroke, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes. CAD is the leading cause of death in the world and common variant association studies show that our understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms is incomplete (e.g, >2/3 of the 63 common variants previously mapped for CAD do not directly relate to known risk factors). CAD is representative of a class of common diseases with onset at middle age. When CAD occurs early in life, there is a stronger inherited component. In addition, there is empirical evidence that a burden of rare coding alleles in individual genes contribute to risk for CAD. Source: <a href="https://ccdg.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/CCDG_CVD_EOCAD_STROKE_FINAL.pdf">https://ccdg.rutgers.edu/sites/default/files/CCDG_CVD_EOCAD_STROKE_FINAL.pdf</a>
For this study, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard generated genetic data for ~13,500 individuals from the Partners Biobank, including using whole exome sequencing and whole genome genotyping (Infinium Global Screening Array), with 550 samples from patients with myocardial infarction, a type of EOCAD. Partners Biobank, launched in 2010, is a biobank composed of samples from Partners hospitals, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital. The Biobank has enrolled >100K individuals to study how genes, lifestyle, and other factors affect people's health and contribute to disease.

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded the Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG), a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to common disease phenotypes and to better understand the general principles of genomic architecture underlying common, complex inherited diseases.
This study contains variant calls derived from the whole genome sequence data of an early-onset coronary artery disease case-control cohort selected from the NUgene Project biobank at Northwestern University.
Case status was assigned based on the presence of myocardial infarction, coronary artery stenosis greater than 70% in at least one coronary artery, and/or revascularization (coronary angioplasty with or without stent placement or coronary artery bypass grafting) at an early age. In this study "early age" is defined as men 60 years of age or younger and women 70 years of age or younger.

Lewy body dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/frontotemporal dementia, and multiple system atrophy are age-related, neurodegenerative syndromes that are poorly understood. Delineating the genetic risk that is driving the pathophysiology of these neurological diseases is fundamental for understanding disease mechanisms and for developing disease-modifying treatments. 
In version 1 of the study/dbGaP deposition, we performed a whole-genome sequencing study consisting of 7,403 total samples, including 2,633 genomes from patients with Lewy body dementia, 2,641 frontotemporal dementia patients, and 1,980 neurologically healthy controls. Of these, 6,907 were uploaded to dbGaP as the basis of the DementiaSeq, phs001963 dataset. The data relating to these samples are available on dbGaP.
In version 2 of this study/dbGaP deposition, we made much of these data available on Anvil. More specifically, data for 6,254 of these samples were also uploaded to the ALS Compute platform on AnVIL. The data for the remaining 653 samples are only available on dbGaP. The dbGaP/AnVIL Table lists the availability of dbGaP and AnVIL for each individual sample: <a>phd008475</a>.
In version 3 of the study/dbGaP deposition, we added whole-genome sequence data generated using DNA samples obtained from 683 patients diagnosed with multiple system atrophy.

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded the Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG), a collaborative large-scale genome sequencing effort to comprehensively identify rare risk and protective variants contributing to common disease phenotypes and to better understand the general principles of genomic architecture underlying common, complex inherited diseases.
This study contains variant calls derived from the whole genome sequence data of an early-onset coronary artery disease case-control cohort collected by the Cleveland Clinic. Case status was assigned based on the presence of myocardial infarction, coronary artery stenosis greater than 70% in at least one coronary artery, and/or revascularization (coronary angioplasty with or without stent placement or coronary artery bypass grafting) at an early age. For these samples, "early age" is defined as men 60 years of age or younger and women 70 years of age or younger.

Methylation of cytosines in CpG dinucleotides is an epigenetic mechanism with essential roles in mammalian development. To explore its functions in cellular differentiation, unbiased analysis of CpG methylation by whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) has been used to characterize epigenetic differences among different human tissues and cell types. Meanwhile, human interindividual variation in DNA methylation that is not cell-type specific has attracted relatively little attention. Systemic interindividual epigenetic variation is important, however, because like genetic variation it is a potential determinant of phenotypic variation and can be assessed in any easily obtainable DNA sample. Since systemic epigenetic variants originate in the preimplantation embryo, their establishment can be influenced by periconceptional environment, and potentially provide information about lifetime risks relevant to global health, obesity, and cancer.
We elucidated systemic interindividual variation in CpG methylation in the human genome. We studied brain, heart, and thyroid tissues (representing all three germ layer lineages) from each of 10 donors in the NIH Gene-Tissue Expression (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000424">GTEx</a>) project. We performed deep whole genome bisulfite sequencing for these 30 samples, achieving a sequencing depth of over 50x coverage per sample. We identified 9,926 correlated regions of systemic interindividual variation (CoRSIVs). These regions, comprising just 0.1% of the human genome, often correlate with one another over long genomic distances, are associated with transposable elements and subtelomeric regions, conserved across various human ethnic groups, and particularly sensitive to periconceptional environment. While genetic variation appears to influence methylation at most CoRSIVs, many show no evidence of genetic influence, suggestive of 'pure' epigenetic variation. At CoRSIVs, interindividual variation in DNA methylation in an easily biopsied tissue predicts expression in other tissues, and genes associated with these loci are implicated in a range of human disorders. In addition to charting a previously unrecognized molecular level of human individuality, this atlas of human CoRSIVs provides a resource for future population-based investigations into how interindividual epigenetic variation modulates risk of disease.

Participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study, a large population-based longitudinal cohort study, have been included in this Project and whole genome sequencing will be performed to contribute to analyses of early-onset atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism. Additional phenotype and genotype data are available for these individuals on dbGaP and can be accessed through the parent ARIC Cohort accession (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000280">phs000280</a>). The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program is designed to generate scientific resources to enhance understanding of fundamental biological processes that underlie heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders (HLBS). It is part of a broader Precision Medicine Initiative, which aims to provide disease treatments that are tailored to an individual's unique genes and environment. TOPMed will contribute to this initiative through the integration of whole genome sequencing (WGS) and other -omics (e.g., metabolic profiles, protein and RNA expression patterns) data with molecular, behavioral, imaging, environmental, and clinical data. In doing so, this program seeks to uncover factors that increase or decrease the risk of disease, identify subtypes of disease, and develop more targeted and personalized treatments. The Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) Project is part of NHLBI's TOPMed program and serves as an initial step for the larger initiative.

AnVIL Dataset Catalog