JPM is assisting Serbia's Institute for Molecular Genetics and Genetics Engineering with its implementation of the Balkan Genome Project.
JPM describes IMGGE as "one of the leading Serbian institutions in the field of genetics research," and explains that "the Project is aimed at sequencing of the whole genome (DNA) of at least 1000 individuals whose ancestors are from different regions of the Balkan Peninsula." According to the firm, "the data obtained by DNA sequencing will be combined and deposited in publicly available data basis and will be used by researches in other scientific and health institutions and companies."
According to JPM, "the goal of the Project is the creation of detailed and complete catalogue of genetics variants for the Balkan Peninsula. As the changes in DNA sequence may lead to diseases, data obtained by sequencing may contribute to determination of a connection between genetics variants and diseases, such as malign diseases, schizophrenia and heart diseases. The results of the Project will be of significant importance for researches worldwide in many other fields of research such as pharmacogenomics (these will enable further developments, i.e. how and why different persons react on different medicines, which further may help health practitioners in the future to determine dosage of some medicines without necessity for comprehensive testing) medical genetics, population genetics, history of human populations, evolutions, anthropology and forensics."
The JPM team is led by Partner Ivan Milosevic, working with Senior Associate Andrea Cvetanovic.
