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Genomics, public health and developing countries: the case of the Mexican National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN)
Batrice Sguin, Billie-Jo Hardy, Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar
Abstract | In 2004, the government of Mexico established the National Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), to carry out disease-related genomic studies that will address national health problems and stimulate scientific and technological development by generating new commercial products and services in genomic medicine. Towards this end, INMEGEN is carrying out a large-scale genotyping project to map genomic variation within its own population. The initiative is expected to generate a key resource for local researchers to understand disease susceptibility and variation in drug responses, which will contribute to Mexicos goal of developing public health genomics a field in which Mexico is proving to be a leader amongst emerging economies.
Mexico recently joined the global community in investing in human genomic variation studies through the formation of the http://www.inmegen.org.mx/
Web End =National http://www.inmegen.org.mx/
Web End =Institute of Genomic Medicine (INMEGEN), the first Mexican institute to systematically describe the genomic diversity of the Mexican population. INMEGEN will provide an opportunity for Mexico to create innovative solutions to its own health challenges asit will focus on the link between genomic variation in the Mexican population, disease susceptibility and drug-response variability. This initiative is of particular relevance as recent statistics show that in addition to the rising rates of infectious diseases in developing countries, the rates of non-communicable diseases are also on the increase1. Any tool, including genomics, that can address these health burdens will be of great value in a country like Mexico. INMEGEN will also play a part in economic development. Mexicos recent draft proposal for the new Law on Science, Technology and Innovation2
cites several challenges to Mexicos innovation system that INMEGEN will help address: Mexico has a slow economic growth
amounting to only 2.8% per year between 1980 and 2004; there are only 0.80 researchers per 1000 labour force; only 0.33% of Mexicos gross domestic product (GDP) was spent on science and technology (S&T) in 2006; and linkages between the knowledge-based public sector and the private sector have been weak or insufficient2.
Using previously described qualitative methods3,4 we performed 19 in-depth semi-structured...