Global Initiatives

FinnGen is an active member of the broader international biobank research community. In the effort to move the field of human genetic research forward, no individual study alone is sufficient. International collaboration between large biobank studies like PanUKBB, Million Veterans Program (MVP), Japan Biobank, Estonian Biobank and many others is important. By combining data and/or results we are more likely to be able to perform meaningful analyses.

The international collaboration between biobank projects addresses one major shortcoming of most genetic studies that have primarily focused on individuals of European descent. Although the basic biology is the same between ethnicities, the underlying genetics vary. Understanding the genetic landscape of each population is essential for translating findings to health care practice. For this reason, broadening studies across global populations is one of the main current trends of disease genetics.

An example of the potential of combining results from multiple biobanks from around the world is the Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative (GBMI) that has brought together dozens of biobank projects with different origins and ancestries. This collaborative study aims to establish means for better powered genetic studies, especially in diseases where there are unmet needs and sufficient case numbers have been hard to reach in individual studies.  

Another example of the efficiency of the genetic community to move things quickly is the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative where more than a hundred studies, including FinnGen, worked together to identify genetic variants associated with either COVID-19 susceptibility or COVID-19 severity. This project was launched from FIMM and leveraged the rapid opportunity provided by the FinnGen project to connect real time health and genome information – and the willingness of the project to share results with other researchers. The speed with which other groups around the world joined together was impressive, and would not have been possible without existing biobank projects and infrastructures. The  key findings of the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative are described in two Nature articles (2021, 2022).

As a part of FinnGen 2 pilot activities FinnGen also had a formal research collaboration for meta-analysis activities with the Estonian Biobank, which ended at the end of FinnGen 2.