Genomic data sharing for novel mendelian disease gene discovery: the matchmaker exchange

DR Azzariti, A Hamosh - Annual Review of Genomics and …, 2020 - annualreviews.org
DR Azzariti, A Hamosh
Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 2020annualreviews.org
In the last decade, exome and/or genome sequencing has become a common test in the
diagnosis of individuals with features of a rare Mendelian disorder. Despite its success, this
test leaves the majority of tested individuals undiagnosed. This review describes the
Matchmaker Exchange (MME), a federated network established to facilitate the solving of
undiagnosed rare-disease cases through data sharing. MME supports genomic
matchmaking, the act of connecting two or more parties looking for cases with similar …
In the last decade, exome and/or genome sequencing has become a common test in the diagnosis of individuals with features of a rare Mendelian disorder. Despite its success, this test leaves the majority of tested individuals undiagnosed. This review describes the Matchmaker Exchange (MME), a federated network established to facilitate the solving of undiagnosed rare-disease cases through data sharing. MME supports genomic matchmaking, the act of connecting two or more parties looking for cases with similar phenotypes and variants in the same candidate genes. An application programming interface currently connects six matchmaker nodes—the Database of Chromosomal Imbalance and Phenotype in Humans Using Ensembl Resources (DECIPHER), GeneMatcher, PhenomeCentral, seqr, MyGene2, and the Initiative on Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (IRUD) Exchange—resulting in a collective data set spanning more than 150,000 cases from more than 11,000 contributors in 88 countries. Here, we describe the successes and challenges of MME, its individual matchmaking nodes, plans for growing the network, and considerations for future directions.
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