Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Apr;24(4):784-797.
doi: 10.1016/j.gim.2021.12.005. Epub 2022 Feb 9.

Centers for Mendelian Genomics: A decade of facilitating gene discovery

Collaborators, Affiliations
Review

Centers for Mendelian Genomics: A decade of facilitating gene discovery

Samantha M Baxter et al. Genet Med. 2022 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: Mendelian disease genomic research has undergone a massive transformation over the past decade. With increasing availability of exome and genome sequencing, the role of Mendelian research has expanded beyond data collection, sequencing, and analysis to worldwide data sharing and collaboration.

Methods: Over the past 10 years, the National Institutes of Health-supported Centers for Mendelian Genomics (CMGs) have played a major role in this research and clinical evolution.

Results: We highlight the cumulative gene discoveries facilitated by the program, biomedical research leveraged by the approach, and the larger impact on the research community. Beyond generating a list of gene-phenotype relationships and participating in widespread data sharing, the CMGs have created resources, tools, and training for the larger community to foster understanding of genes and genome variation. The CMGs have participated in a wide range of data sharing activities, including deposition of all eligible CMG data into the Analysis, Visualization, and Informatics Lab-space (AnVIL), sharing candidate genes through the Matchmaker Exchange and the CMG website, and sharing variants in Genotypes to Mendelian Phenotypes (Geno2MP) and VariantMatcher.

Conclusion: The work is far from complete; strengthening communication between research and clinical realms, continued development and sharing of knowledge and tools, and improving access to richly characterized data sets are all required to diagnose the remaining molecularly undiagnosed patients.

Keywords: Centers for Mendelian Genomics (CMG); Data sharing; Mendelian conditions; Novel gene-disease discovery; Rare disease tools.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Baylor College of Medicine and Miraca Holdings Inc have formed a joint venture with shared ownership and governance of Baylor Genetics, formerly the Baylor Miraca Genetics Laboratories, which performs clinical ES and chromosomal microarray analysis for genome-wide detection of copy number variants. J.R.L. serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Baylor Genetics. J.R.L. has stock ownership in 23andMe, is a paid consultant for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and is a coinventor on multiple United States and European patents related to molecular diagnostics for inherited neuropathies, eye diseases, and bacterial genomic fingerprinting. H.L.R. receives funding from Illumina to support rare disease gene discovery and diagnosis. Consortium author conflicts of interest are listed in the Supplement. All other authors have no disclosures relevant to the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Overview of the Centers for Mendelian Genomics (CMGs) by numbers.
(A) A high-level summary of activities performed by the CMGs, including the number of collaborators, number of kindreds, volume of testing performed, and discovery rates. (B) Map of CMG collaborators. Blue indicates that the CMGs collaborated with at least 1 researcher in that country (based on country listing in PubMed affiliations). (C) Data-sharing metrics for the CMGs.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Solve and discovery rates by high-level Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) category.
Kindreds were categorized as having phenotypes in 1 HPO high-level system or multiple high-level systems. From there, the solve and discovery types were analyzed for each system. There were 494 kindreds in our Center for Mendelian Genomics (CMG) cohort with no HPO terms available, and therefore they were not able to be included in this analysis. Systems with fewer than 10 kindreds were noted but excluded.

Similar articles

  • Insights into genetics, human biology and disease gleaned from family based genomic studies.
    Posey JE, O'Donnell-Luria AH, Chong JX, Harel T, Jhangiani SN, Coban Akdemir ZH, Buyske S, Pehlivan D, Carvalho CMB, Baxter S, Sobreira N, Liu P, Wu N, Rosenfeld JA, Kumar S, Avramopoulos D, White JJ, Doheny KF, Witmer PD, Boehm C, Sutton VR, Muzny DM, Boerwinkle E, Günel M, Nickerson DA, Mane S, MacArthur DG, Gibbs RA, Hamosh A, Lifton RP, Matise TC, Rehm HL, Gerstein M, Bamshad MJ, Valle D, Lupski JR; Centers for Mendelian Genomics. Posey JE, et al. Genet Med. 2019 Apr;21(4):798-812. doi: 10.1038/s41436-018-0408-7. Epub 2019 Jan 18. Genet Med. 2019. PMID: 30655598 Free PMC article. Review.
  • The Centers for Mendelian Genomics: a new large-scale initiative to identify the genes underlying rare Mendelian conditions.
    Bamshad MJ, Shendure JA, Valle D, Hamosh A, Lupski JR, Gibbs RA, Boerwinkle E, Lifton RP, Gerstein M, Gunel M, Mane S, Nickerson DA; Centers for Mendelian Genomics. Bamshad MJ, et al. Am J Med Genet A. 2012 Jul;158A(7):1523-5. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.a.35470. Epub 2012 May 24. Am J Med Genet A. 2012. PMID: 22628075 Free PMC article.
  • Genomic Data Sharing for Novel Mendelian Disease Gene Discovery: The Matchmaker Exchange.
    Azzariti DR, Hamosh A. Azzariti DR, et al. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet. 2020 Aug 31;21:305-326. doi: 10.1146/annurev-genom-083118-014915. Epub 2020 Apr 27. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet. 2020. PMID: 32339034 Review.
  • The Genetic Basis of Mendelian Phenotypes: Discoveries, Challenges, and Opportunities.
    Chong JX, Buckingham KJ, Jhangiani SN, Boehm C, Sobreira N, Smith JD, Harrell TM, McMillin MJ, Wiszniewski W, Gambin T, Coban Akdemir ZH, Doheny K, Scott AF, Avramopoulos D, Chakravarti A, Hoover-Fong J, Mathews D, Witmer PD, Ling H, Hetrick K, Watkins L, Patterson KE, Reinier F, Blue E, Muzny D, Kircher M, Bilguvar K, López-Giráldez F, Sutton VR, Tabor HK, Leal SM, Gunel M, Mane S, Gibbs RA, Boerwinkle E, Hamosh A, Shendure J, Lupski JR, Lifton RP, Valle D, Nickerson DA; Centers for Mendelian Genomics; Bamshad MJ. Chong JX, et al. Am J Hum Genet. 2015 Aug 6;97(2):199-215. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2015.06.009. Epub 2015 Jul 9. Am J Hum Genet. 2015. PMID: 26166479 Free PMC article. Review.
  • PhenoDB, GeneMatcher and VariantMatcher, tools for analysis and sharing of sequence data.
    Wohler E, Martin R, Griffith S, Rodrigues EDS, Antonescu C, Posey JE, Coban-Akdemir Z, Jhangiani SN, Doheny KF, Lupski JR, Valle D, Hamosh A, Sobreira N. Wohler E, et al. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2021 Aug 18;16(1):365. doi: 10.1186/s13023-021-01916-z. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2021. PMID: 34407837 Free PMC article.

Cited by

References

    1. Lupski JR, Reid JG, Gonzaga-Jauregui C, et al. Whole-genome sequencing in a patient with Charcot–Marie–Tooth neuropathy. N Engl J Med 2010;362(13):1181–1191. 10.1056/NEJMoa0908094. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bainbridge MN, Wiszniewski W, Murdock DR, et al. Whole-genome sequencing for optimized patient management. Sci Transl Med 2011;3(87):87re3. 10.1126/scitranslmed.3002243. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ng SB, Turner EH, Robertson PD, et al. Targeted capture and massively parallel sequencing of 12 human exomes. Nature 2009;461(7261):272–276. 10.1038/nature08250. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ng SB, Buckingham KJ, Lee C, et al. Exome sequencing identifies the cause of a Mendelian disorder. Nat Genet 2010;42(1):30–35. 10.1038/ng.499. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Biesecker LG. Exome sequencing makes medical genomics a reality. Nat Genet 2010;42(1):13–14. 10.1038/ng0110-13. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources