Oleg Balanovsky made a presentation on the 2nd Board Meeting of International Human Phenome Consortium

The 2nd Board Meeting of International Human Phenome Consortium  has been online this year due to the pandemic. Oleg Balanovsky, Dr. of biological science, Chief Researcher at the FSBI RCMG Human Population Genetics Laboratory, Professor RAS delivered his report "2D and 3D imaging of the various populations from Russia: updating the pigmentation-predicting system").

Oleg Balanovsky presented the Biobank of Northern Eurasia, containing 30,000 DNA samples from 300 populations of indigenous peoples of Russia and neighboring countries. Anthropological photographs of the examined persons are attached to collections of biological samples of indigenous peoples. Researchers obtain a generalized photographic portrait of the population by summarizing anthropological photographic portraits of different individuals belonging to the same population. Anthropological photographic portraits are used to evaluate physical features, particularly those related to pigmentation, and to assemble a collection of indigenous phenotypes. The compared genotype and phenotype database showed that the DNA-based prediction system (HIrisPlex-S) for pigmentation phenotype worked less accurately in Northern Eurasia populations than in Western European populations. This is because other alleles associated with pigmentation, different from Western Europeans, may have arisen in Northern Eurasia.

The researchers from the Human Population Genetics Laboratory found new SNP markers associated with eye and hair color in Northern Eurasian populations. The inclusion of these markers in the panel will improve the accuracy of eye and hair color prediction through DNA in this country.

The researchers seek to extend this approach to other phenotypic features. To do so, they use not 2D, but 3D photo portraits obtained with a handheld anthropological scanner.

Cooperation within the International Consortium will make it possible to solve the problem of standardization of anthropological measurements and to organize together an inclusive phenotypic examination of Chinese and Russian populations by joint efforts.

A link to the presentation https://youtu.be/O4zsyRkpasE 

A link to the board meeting: https://cwmeet.webex.com/webappng/sites/cwmeet/meeting/download/0ce70f96f8434847b86c5463b0a6844b?MTID=md6fb4126f44c18d9caf33aabbe6d3d0f&siteurl=cwmeet