New Delhi, June 21: Indian scientists are evaluating the prospects of setting up a national human DNA bank, a repository of genetic material from the country’s myriad population groups for medical and research applications.

The proposal calls for storing thousands of samples of DNA extracted from blood, cells, saliva and biological tissues in a national human DNA repository.

But a consensus on establishing such a facility is yet to emerge. A national committee set up by the Calcutta-based Anthropological Survey of India is now evaluating the feasibility of setting up a national human DNA bank.

“India has one of the richest diversity of human populations,” said Vadlamudi Raghavendra Rao, the director of the Survey. “Technology allows us to store DNA indefinitely.”

Scientists say a human DNA bank will throw open opportunities for research and discovery. Analysis of DNA from people belonging to different communities has allowed scientists to trace the historical migration routes of populations. Studies on DNA samples are also expected to provide fresh insights into connections between genes and a number of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes or mental illness.

But they caution that human DNA banking is also an ethical minefield. It raises legal and ethical issues such as ownership of DNA, commercialisation of research and the threat to the privacy of individuals who donated their DNA.

“We’ll have to deal with issues such as confidentiality, anonymity and the potential for exploitation of the stored genetic material,” said Vasantha Muthuswamy, the senior deputy director-general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

While academic institutions such as the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad have been collecting human DNA for ongoing research, there are no uniform standards for handling such material.

Academic groups in the US and Europe have been collecting human DNA for research. The Baltic country of Estonia was among the first to announce a national DNA bank five years ago to store DNA from 75 per cent of its 1.4 million population. Gambia, Iceland, Israel and Singapore have also established national human DNA banks. Gambia’s five-year-old bank already has 40,000 samples, while Israel has 1,500 samples.

Muthuswamy, who is a member of the committee set up by the anthropological survey, is preparing ethical guidelines designed to help researchers in managing human genetic material. The committee is yet to discuss the nature, size and exact content of the proposed repository, Muthuswamy said. The DNA bank could be either located in a single institution or have several regional wings across the country.

Over the past several decades, the Anthropological Survey of India has catalogued over 4,670 communities in India. “We have an unparalleled diversity distributed across different cultural and environmental backgrounds,” Rao said.

Some scientists are concerned that given the absence of national standards to handle genetic material, there are no effective controls on the flight of human DNA out of India.

“We need strong regulations,” said Nandini Kumar, the deputy director-general at the ICMR. “Genetic material could be exploited for commercial purposes,” she said.

“We’ll have to develop our own systems to manage this resource well,” said Muthuswamy.