The minister toured the facilities to learn first-hand about its world-class infrastructures, which includes state-of-the-art sequencers able to analyse more than 80 human genomes each day.

BCN, 29 January 2020.- Today the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation visited the Centro Nacional de Anñalisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG). The minister toured the facilities to learn first-hand about its world-class infrastructures, which includes state-of-the-art sequencers able to analyse more than 80 human genomes each day.

 

Pedro Duque learned more about the centre’s research projects, such as RD Connect, a digital platform used for the diagnosis of rare diseases. The centre also showcased its role in tha Chronic Lymphatic Leukaemia project, part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium. The minister also learned about the the CNAG-CRG’s role in sequencing the genome of the Iberian Lynx and the olive tree, something essential to conserve species of interest. He also saw MinION, a portable sequencer that has been tried out in space.

 

The minister met Luis Serrano, CRG director and president of the Severo Ochoa y Maria de Maetzu alliance and later with Ivo Gut, director of the CNAG-CRG. The Science and innovation minister extolled CNAG-CRG’s work, a centre that is part of the ICTS network. He affirmed that CNAG-CRG will pay a relevant role in the future national strategy for personalised medicine.

 

“We are delighted to have received Pedro Duque and have the chance to explain the importance of genomic analysis in improving health and quality of life for society at large. In the CNAG-CRG we are well positioned to affront the challenges of applying genomics in a clinical setting”, says Ivo Gut.

 

“We’ve had a constructive meeting with the minister, who has told us about his enthusiasm in boosting science funding and removing red tape that afflicts Spanish science. As SOMMa, we offer to do everything we can to turn this into reality,” says Luis Serrano.

 

About the CNAG-CRG

The Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico is found in Barcelona Scientific Park and was integrated into the CRG as of 2015. It has 38 concurrent projects with a total budget of 19 million euros, providing services to more than 150 researchers around Spain. The centre has twelve second and third generation sequencers as well as a supercomputer able to store 11 petabytes of genomic information.