Page 6 - DIGITAL e-Book RCPH 2026

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1 REGIONAL CONFERENCE onon
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P P R E C I S I O N H E A L H
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PRECISION HEALTH
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T T h e M a l a y s i a n P a n g e n o m e
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The Malaysian Pangenomee
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The Malaysian Pangenome: A National Milestone for Precision Health
The human genome is the fundamental blueprint of life. It holds the biological information that
shapes human development, influences health and disease, and determines how individuals
respond to treatment, environment, and lifestyle. In recent years, advances in genomics have
transformed medicine by making it possible to better understand why some individuals are more
susceptible to certain diseases, why treatments work well for some but not others, and how
prevention and care can be tailored more precisely. This is the promise of precision medicine and
precision health: delivering the right intervention to the right person at the right time, based on a
deeper understanding of biology, environment, and lifestyle.
Globally, this transformation has been driven by landmark initiatives such as the Human Genome
Project, the UK Biobank, the All of US Research Program in the United States, Singapore’s
National Precision Medicine Programme, and the Human Pangenome Reference
Consortium. These initiatives have demonstrated that genomic resources are no longer merely
scientific undertakings; they are strategic national assets that strengthen research capacity,
accelerate innovation, and shape the future of healthcare systems.
Yet one important lesson has become increasingly clear: no single reference genome can fully
represent the diversity of all human populations. Earlier reference genomes, while foundational,
were built from a limited representation of populations and do not adequately capture the full
spectrum of variation across different ancestries. This has important implications for diagnosis,
risk prediction, pharmacogenomics, and the interpretation of genomic data. This matters because
genomic differences influence disease risk, drug response, diagnosis, and the interpretation of
genetic tests. For this reason, countries are increasingly building their own reference genomes or
pangenomes that better reflect the unique characteristics of their populations. For Malaysia, a nation
distinguished by remarkable ethnic, cultural, and ancestral diversity, such a resource is both
scientifically necessary and nationally significant.
The Malaysian Pangenome was developed from this global scientific understanding and from
Malaysia’s own long-term investment in population research through The Malaysian Cohort
(TMC). Established as a national project, with the UKM Medical Molecular Biology (UMBI) as the
custodian, The Malaysian Cohort has built one of the country’s most valuable biomedical research
resources, with extensive epidemiological, clinical, and biospecimen data to support the study of
gene-environment interactions, disease risk, and population health. Building on this national
resource, the Malaysian Pangenome was conceived to provide a genomic reference that truly
reflects the diversity of the Malaysian population and supports the country’s ambitions in precision
health.