A hospital and a drugmaker decide to create a vast database of the DNA of New Yorkers

Patients will be asked if their genetic sequence can be added to a database — shared with a pharmaceutical company — in a quest to cure a multitude of diseases .< /p>

The Mount Sinai Health System this week began an effort to build a large database of genetic patient information that can be studied by researchers — and by a major pharmaceutical company.

The goal is to seek treatments for illnesses ranging from schizophrenia to kidney disease, but the effort to collect genetic information for many patients, collected during routine blood draws, could also raise privacy concerns.

The data will be anonymized, and Mount Sinai said it had no intention on their part ager with anyone other than researchers. But consumer or genealogy databases filled with genetic information, like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch, have been used by detectives looking for genetic clues that might help them solve ancient crimes.

Large sets of genetic sequences can unlock new insights into many diseases and pave the way for new treatments, according to Mount Sinai researchers. But the only way to compile these research databases is to first convince a large number of people to agree to have their genome sequenced.

Beyond of the search for the next breakthrough drug, the researchers hope that the database, when combined with patient medical records, will provide new insights into how the interplay between genetic and socioeconomic factors, such that poverty or exposure to air pollution, can affect people's health.

"It's really transformative," said Alexander Charney, professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who oversees the project.

Health The system hopes to eventually build a database of genetic sequences for 1 million patients, which would mean the inclusion of approximately one New York City resident out of 10. The effort began this week, hospital spokeswoman Karin Eskenazi said. Over the past fifteen years, Mount Sinai has been slowly building a biological sample bank, or biobank, called BioMe, with around 50,000 DNA sequences to date. However, the researchers were frustrated by the slowness, which they attribute to the cumbersome process they use to obtain consent and enroll patients: multiple surveys and a lengthy one-on-one discussion with a Mount employee. Sinai that sometimes lasts 20 minutes, according to Dr. Girish Nadkarni of Mount Sinai, who leads the project with Dr. Charney.

Most of this consent process is dropped . Mount Sinai dropped health inquiries and reduced the procedure to watching a short video and providing a signature. This week it began trying to enroll most patients who were receiving blood tests as part of their routine care.

A number of large programs biobanks already exist across the country. But the one the Mount Sinai Health System is looking to build would be the first large-scale one to draw attendees primarily from New York. The program may well mark a shift in the way many New Yorkers think about their genetic information, going from something private or unknown to something they've donated to research.

The project will involve sequencing large numbers of DNA samples, an undertaking that could cost tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. To avoid this cost, Mount Sinai has partnered with Regeneron, a major pharmaceutical company, which will do the actual sequencing work. In return, the company will have access to each participant's genetic sequences and partial medical records, according to the Mount Sinai doctors who run the program. Mount Sinai also intends to share data with other researchers...