The information that will be collected in the project will help in locating risk factors for diseases, which cannot be detected by other research methods
One of the significant challenges facing the health system today is the creation of personalized medicine, which will provide an adequate response to each and every patient according to their needs and personal risk factors. A new project called "Mosaic" that recently began operating at the Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar-Ilan University, is designed to meet this need.
As part of the innovative project, hundreds of thousands of blood samples and medical data will be collected from volunteers from the various communities that make up the population of Israel. The samples will be genetically sequenced, and the genome data will form an information infrastructure for research and development in the fields of personalized medicine for common and rare diseases.
The data that will be collected will be analyzed in a way that will make it possible to adapt the most effective dedicated medical treatment for the individual, in order to improve its effectiveness and prevent complications and morbidity. In addition, an advanced analysis of the data that will be obtained will allow the identification of disease factors and risk factors for diseases, which cannot be detected by other research methods. Thanks to the medical and genetic information, it will be possible to detect earlier diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, dementia and more, which are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, and to develop personalized treatments.
The "Mosaic" project fits into the digital health strategy of the Ministry of Health, which aims to make Israel an international pioneer in the field of personalized medicine. The project is partnered by many entities working together: the Ministries of Health and Finance, the National Digital System, the Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Education through the Planning and Budgeting Committee (Hott) and is managed through an association of the leading universities in Israel. The CEO of the project is Prof. Gabi Barbash and the head of the board is Prof. Aryeh Tsavan, president of Bar-Ilan University.
The project was recently launched in a celebratory ceremony in the presence of President Yitzhak Herzog and his wife Michal, at the Israeli Presidential Residence in Jerusalem, the ceremony was attended by Prof. Tsavan and Prof. Karl Skortsky from the Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University in the Galilee, who serves as the chairman of the scientific advisory committee for the project.
Also participating in the project is Prof. Tzipi Flick Zakai, deputy dean at the Bar-Ilan Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, who takes part in the construction of the Israeli reference genome, which consists of 63 different subpopulations that make up the unique human mosaic in Israel.
Prof. Tsavan said at the event: "Today the Western world is facing the challenges of the aging of the population, an increase in the incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and we need to overcome them for the benefit of humanity. One of the best ways to approach the matter is through big data. This way we will be able to bring the right treatment to the right patient at the right time and we will make a huge change in the medicine of the State of Israel and the whole world."
