BANGALORE: Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Avesthagen), a leading biotechnology company located here, has launched Avestagenome, a project to build complete genetic, genealogical and medical database of the Parsi community.

Biotechnology-driven medical care looks for new, more effective therapies and diagnostic tools to understand linkages between genes, diseases and environmental factors.

The comprehensive database arising out of this project will provide valuable information on these linkages for all races and not just for the Parsi community. The project results will find application in disease prediction and accelerate the development of new therapies and diagnostics, the company said.

Parsi Zoroastrians, who now number about 69,000 in India, are an in-bred population resulting from the discouragement of inter-community marriages. Such in-bred population are required to more accurately implicate inherited genes for diseases. Avesthagen and its partners will collect samples from the community members along with complete genealogical and medical information.

The samples will be processed through the highly sophisticated genomics facility at Avesthagen.

Villoo Morawala Patell, founder and Managing Director, Avesthagen, said, "Avestagenome would help us predict diseases and would play a catalytic role in the development of new therapies and diagnostics."

The Rs. 125-crore project is expected to be completed within five years.

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