The Launch of the Hungarian National Genome Programme has been Initiated at UP

The almost 800 million HUF tender titled “Strengthening the capacity of the University of Pécs Genomics and Bioinformatics Core Facility” included the purchase and operation of a high-performance sequencing system and the connected bioinformatics equipment that was not available in the country before.

In the past few years, the University of Pécs Szentágothai Research Centre launched the creation of a genomics and bioinformatics centre and research infrastructure that provides most useful services and products for healthcare, agriculture, university education, research and industrial developments at maximum cost effectiveness.

One of the central elements of this project is establishing the necessary sequencing infrastructure.

Thanks to the funding the project received, they were able to purchase the Illumina NovaSeq sequencing equipment, using it to establish a complex system that was only available in Vienna and Prague in Central Europe so far. Due to the developments of molecular biology and informatics in the past few years, national and international medical biology research has reached significant achievements, leading to the transformation of practical medicine. Research, diagnostics and targeted therapy treatments were based on genome foundations, mainly using new generation sequencing technologies. These genomics studies are connected to serious infrastructure, intellectual and economic conditions; therefore, they are only available in countries that have the necessary funds and are able to coordinate them properly.

The Szentágothai Research Centre has initiated the launch of the all-encompassing, synchronised and multidisciplinary Hungarian National Genome Programme

that would also serve national economic purposes. This programme is unique not only in Hungary, but also in the Eastern-Central European region as well, and has various advantages: both for the health of society, and for scientific development and economic stability. The goal is to determine the genetic characteristics of the Hungarian population, development of disease-specific genetic panels and promoting the identification of new pharmaceutical targets.