Human Genome Diversity Project

The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) was started by Stanford University's Morrison Institute and a collaboration of scientists around the world. It is the result of many years of work by Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, one of the most cited scientists in the world, who has published extensively in the use of genetics to understand human migration and evolution. The HGDP data sets have often been cited in papers on such topics as population genetics, anthropology, and heritable disease research.

The project has noted the need to record the genetic profiles of indigenous populations, as isolated populations are the best way to understand the genetic frequencies that have clues into our distant past. Knowing about the relationship between such populations makes it possible to infer journey of humankind from the humans who left Africa and populated the world to the humans of today. The HGDP-CEPH Human Genome Diversity Cell Line Panel is a resource of 1,063 cultured lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) from 1,050 individuals in 52 world populations, banked at the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH in Paris.

The HGDP is not related to the Human Genome Project (HGP) and has attempted to maintain a distinct identity.

A description of the populations that were studied can be found in a 2005 review paper by Cavalli-Sforza:

One of the most important tenets of the HGDP debate has been the social and ethical implications for indigenous populations, specifically the methods and ethics of informed consent. Some questions include: How would consent be obtained? Would individuals or groups fully understand the project's intentions, particularly with regards to language barriers and differing cultural views? What is 'informed' in a cross-cultural context? Who would be authorized to actually give consent? How would individuals know what happened to their DNA? For how long would their information be kept in DNA databases? These questions are specifically addressed by the HGDP's "Model Ethical Protocol for Collecting DNA Samples".

The scientific community has used the HGDP data to study human migration, mutation rates, relationships between different populations, genes involved in height, and selective pressure. HGDP has been instrumental in assessing human diversity and in providing information about similarities and differences in human populations. The HGDP is the project with the largest scope among the various human diversity databases available.

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