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The IGTP celebrates the GCAT|Genomes for Life Community Symposium to highlight the value of prospective cohorts for precision medicine in Spain

On 20 June the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) celebrated the GCAT|Genomes for Life Community Symposium at the Badalona International Business Center (BCIN). GCAT is a strategic project of IGTP and the meeting, this year by invitation-only format, included national experts in the fields of genomics and precision medicine to discuss the status of prospective cohorts in Spain in general and to showcase the current research being generated by the GCAT cohort in particular.

The GCAT|Panel is the first complete genetic map of the Iberian population that helps identifying possible genetic causes of common diseases

The panel is the result of a collaboration between the GCAT|Genomes for Life Cohort of the IGTP and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. Massive genome sequencing of a sample of healthy members of the population has made it possible to provide a genetic tool to study complex variants in the genome that can potentially cause common diseases. The panel will allow researchers using low-cost sequencing techniques to improve the discovery and interpretation of the genetic changes behind common diseases more easily

Participants in the GCAT Project take a look behind the scenes

How do they do it?  How do they get genetic information from a blood sample?  How do you manage the genetic information of 20,000 people? How do you get to understand all this information so it can be used for research?  These are some of the questions asked by GCAT participants while visiting the National Centre for Genomics Analysis- Centre for Genomic Regulation (CNAG-CRG) and Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC), both centres are collaborating with the project.  These questions now have answers.

- Research

GCAT publishes its first results on a variety of diseases

Dr Rafael de Cid joined the institute in 2012 as the Scientific Director of the GCAT. Since then, the Project has been successfully set up and is now seeing the first research results. We asked him about the six publications that have appeared so far this year and what GCAT has in the pipeline.