Human Genetics Research Group at School of Biotechnology at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra, has launched online portal (www.jkdna.in), based on the research carried out by the research group along with the collaborators for online open access. The web portal highlighted as “Project JK-DNA” provides an online open access resource with the goal of aggregating and harmonizing both Human Exome and Genome sequencing data from population of J&K through its genome sequencing projects (Next Generation Sequencing), published resources or public datasets, and making summary data available for the use of wider scientific community especially medical researchers in J&K, India and abroad.
HGRG SMVDU has plans to pool NGS datasets, generated with collaborators from Institute of Human Genetics and School of Biotechnology, University of Jammu for better and higher genomic resolution. The project is powered through a J&K startup Biodroid Innovations Pvt ltd and the product series Key2genes.HGRG is working in the area Human Evolutionary Genetics, Rare Undiagnosed Genetic Disorders and Complex Genetic disorders in Human population of Jammu and Kashmir.
The group has received research grants from various Govt of India Funding agencies: Department of Science and Technology (SERB); University Grant Commission, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and well as National Geographic Society, USA. Recently, HGRG SMVDU has also signed an MoU with Centre for Advanced Research and Diagnostics (CARD), Sri Guru Ram Das University of Health Sciences (SGRDUS) for collaborative research initiatives in domain of human medical genetics as well as established an agreement with Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Narayana Superspeciality Hospital for carrying out R&D, in developing diagnostic tools and academic research for the benefit of mankind, in association with SMVDU Technology Business Incubation Centre.
As informed by Dr. Swarkar Sharma, coordinator and project lead, the portal will also feature various scientific outcomes in the domain, from the region, and for the awareness of common masses will host various resources and articles in common languages.