npj Genomic Medicine (Feb 2021)

Genetic profiles of 103,106 individuals in the Taiwan Biobank provide insights into the health and history of Han Chinese

  • Chun-Yu Wei,
  • Jenn-Hwai Yang,
  • Erh-Chan Yeh,
  • Ming-Fang Tsai,
  • Hsiao-Jung Kao,
  • Chen-Zen Lo,
  • Lung-Pao Chang,
  • Wan-Jia Lin,
  • Feng-Jen Hsieh,
  • Saurabh Belsare,
  • Anand Bhaskar,
  • Ming-Wei Su,
  • Te-Chang Lee,
  • Yi-Ling Lin,
  • Fu-Tong Liu,
  • Chen-Yang Shen,
  • Ling-Hui Li,
  • Chien-Hsiun Chen,
  • Jeffrey D. Wall,
  • Jer-Yuarn Wu,
  • Pui-Yan Kwok

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41525-021-00178-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Personalized medical care focuses on prediction of disease risk and response to medications. To build the risk models, access to both large-scale genomic resources and human genetic studies is required. The Taiwan Biobank (TWB) has generated high-coverage, whole-genome sequencing data from 1492 individuals and genome-wide SNP data from 103,106 individuals of Han Chinese ancestry using custom SNP arrays. Principal components analysis of the genotyping data showed that the full range of Han Chinese genetic variation was found in the cohort. The arrays also include thousands of known functional variants, allowing for simultaneous ascertainment of Mendelian disease-causing mutations and variants that affect drug metabolism. We found that 21.2% of the population are mutation carriers of autosomal recessive diseases, 3.1% have mutations in cancer-predisposing genes, and 87.3% carry variants that affect drug response. We highlight how TWB data provide insight into both population history and disease burden, while showing how widespread genetic testing can be used to improve clinical care.