African Genomics Data Hub Biomedical Knowledgebase - African Genomics Data Hub Biomedical Knowledgebase
Project Summary
African genomic data has the potential to benefit researchers and clinicians world-wide, given
the African origin of global populations, and the current wide geographic spread of people with
African ancestry. However, African genomic data are sparse and often kept in silos or under
controlled access, usually not curated at an adequate level of granularity. The African
Genomics Data Hub (AGDH) Biomedical Knowledgebase aims to address these issues by
providing a centralized resource of curated genomic data for populations of African ancestry
to increase findability and accessibility. More specifically, the knowlegebase will serve as a
data submission centre to promote the submission of multi omics and genetic data to public
repositories, ensuring adherence to international standards and data quality. Existing data in
public repositories and the literature will be further curated and accessible via web portals
focussed on African-relevant information. Aggregated genomic data from populations of
African ancestry that are not available in gnoMAD or other databases for valid reasons, will
be served with appropriate access levels in the African Genome Variation Database hosted
by the AGDH. Datasets will be indexed and searchable via a catalogue to increase findability.
Additionally, tools and resources relevant to the processing and analysis of African data
(African pangenome and reference graph, African reference panel and imputation service)
that complement and fill gaps in international efforts will continue to be developed and
maintained. These will be used in the production of the AGDH resources. User support will be
provided through a help desk and continuous training. These activities draw on the extensive
experience and valuable outputs of the H3ABioNet consortium, which has been developing
capacity and resources for genomics in Africa for more than 9 years. All components of the
knowledgebase will work with public database counterparts in the USA and United Kingdom
(dbGAP, EGA, INSDC, GWAS Catalog, gnoMAD) to ensure alignment, avoid redundancy, fill
gaps, and cover niche areas The AGDH will collate and add significant value to African
genomic data and ensure findability and accessibility to the global scientific community that
would not otherwise be available, thus facilitating compliance with FAIR principles.
