#EBW25 Live: Dr. Mait Metspalu delivers keynote lecture II – ‘Bringing the benefits of biobanking closer to the people’  

Thursday’s keynote was delivered by Mait Metspalu, Professor of Evolutionary Genomics at the Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu. The subject of his talk was ‘Bringing the benefits of biobanking closer to the people’.   

The keynote shared how the new MyGenome portal is giving over 100,000 participants personalised insights on disease risk, lifestyle impact, and interesting asides  on caffeine metabolism. Estonia is a powerful example of how biobanks can move beyond research to directly empower individuals to manage their health. 

In the lead-up to his talk, Prof. Metspalu discussed the MyGenome portal, explaining that results took longer than expected because of the complex and demanding nature of the work: 

“Well, connecting participants to the biobank, we really did promise results. And after a couple of years, people started asking ‘When do we get the results?’ So, we were under pressure – both from the biobank participants and from ourselves – because we wanted to live up to the promises and deliver results.” 

He continued:

“We really made an effort to create this portal, and we’re quite satisfied with it, to be honest, although it is the first stage, and it needs to be constantly developed so that we fulfill the task of keeping the connection between the biobank and participants alive. It’s cool to bring the biobank close to people.” 

Keynote abstract 

Large biobanks have set a new standard for research and innovation in human genomics and the implementation of personalised medicine. The Estonian Biobank was founded 25 years ago, and its biological specimens, clinical, health, omics, and lifestyle data have been included in over 800 publications. What makes the biobank unique is its translational focus, with active efforts to conduct clinical studies based on genetic findings and to explore the effects of return of results on participants. In June 2024, the biobank opened an online portal called MyGenome for all its participants. The portal contains personalised information on genetic and cumulative risk for type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease based on polygenic risk scores and other risk factors. The reports include interactive graphs that allow participants to explore how their risk can change with lifestyle modifications. The results section also contains fun facts such as caffeine metabolism profiles and ancestry reports. Over 100,000 participants have logged in to the portal and signed the dynamic consent specifying which areas they wished to receive results in. The keynote will provide an overview of the portal and the feedback received from the participants that completed the questionnaires at the end of each report.  

Dr. Mait Metspalu 

Mait Metspalu did PhD in population genetics in University of Tartu 2006. In 2012-2013 Mait was a visiting research fellow in UC Berkeley. His research concentrates on using and developing population genetics approaches incl. ancient DNA to understand the genetic diversity and adaptations of humans through time. Mait is the director of the Institute of Genomics at the University of Tartu which houses the population based Estonian Biobank. He co-led the development of the Biobank portal MyGenome. He is involved in facilitating the transfer of knowledge of genetic risks for diseases into the medical system in Estonia and has been part of several initiatives in this capacity in close collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Estonian Health Insurance Fund.