THE 2nd CANCER GENOME ATLAS (TCGA) 2020

Subject: Current Events

Context:  The Minister of Science and Technology and Vice President of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), virtually inaugurated the 2nd TCGA 2020 conference in New Delhi.

Concept:

• TCGA is a landmark cancer genomics program that molecularly characterized over 20,000 primary cancer and matched normal samples spanning 33 cancer types.
• This joint effort between the US- National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute began in 2006, bringing together researchers from diverse disciplines and multiple institutions.
• Over the years, TCGA generated over 2.5 petabytes of genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data. The data, which has already led to improvements in the ability to diagnose, treat, and prevent cancer, will remain publicly available for anyone in the research community to use.
• On similar lines, the establishment of an ‘Indian Cancer Genomics Atlas (ICGA)’ has been initiated by a consortium of key stakeholders in India led by CSIR, Government of India.