What is the structure of the FinnGen project?
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Last updated
Last updated
FinnGen is a collaborative, pre-competitive, public-private research project that aims to understand human diseases using genomic data combined with the rich Finnish health registry data.
The FinnGen research project has produced genome variant data of >500,000 Finnish individuals, which is almost 10% of the entire Finnish population.
FinnGen is a partnership between
Finnish universities
research institutes
biobanks
wellbeing services counties
several international pharmaceutical companies
The University of Helsinki is the legal entity responsible for the study. All current FinnGen Partners are listed here.
The overall governance of FinnGen is described here.
The Steering Committee and the Scientific Committee oversee the FinnGen study.
Steering Committee (highest decision-making body)
University of Helsinki (legal entity responsible for the study)
Both committees have representatives from the University of Helsinki, each biobank, and each pharma partner.
University of Helsinki (specifically, FIMM) coordinates the FinnGen study
The University of Helsinki, biobanks, pharma partners, Business Finland, and FinBB each have the right to appoint one representative to the FinnGen Steering Committee. The responsibilities of the Steering Committee include major strategic decisions and monitoring the progress of the project against the deliverables, milestones and high-level objectives of the Scientific Plan.
Professor Aarno Palotie (University of Helsinki) has been appointed as the Scientific Director of the study, and is responsible for the overall conduct and output of the Scientific Plan.
Establishes and oversees the various working groups within the project and advises the Scientific Director. The Scientific Committee is composed of the Scientific Director, working group leaders and scientific representatives appointed by the University of Helsinki, biobanks, and pharma partners.
Dr. Mervi Aavikko, Dr. Helen Cooper and Denise Öller MSc (Econ), BSc (Biol) have been appointed as FinnGen co-Project Managers and Dr. Risto Kajanne as the FinnGen Project Coordinator. Dr. Mari Kaunisto is the Communications Director and responsible for the proactive public dissemination of the study.
Several teams consisting of close to 40 members have been established to take care of the execution of the study.
