P3G is a truly massive collaborative enterprise that aims to bring together large population cohorts from around the world - eventually including more than 11,000,000 subjects, if all goes as planned - and facilitate the sharing of samples and data for population genomic studies. Several of the problems with genome-wide association studies that I highlighted in my recent post (particularly the existence of rare risk variants or variants with small effects) can only really be addressed with enormous sample sizes. Gathering sufficient numbers of patients will require large-scale international collaborations, and it looks as though P3G is a big step in that direction.
The lofty principles espoused in the statement ("free exchange of ideas, data-sharing and openness for the benefit of all") might sound rather naïve if it weren't for the surprising triumph of such ideals in human genetics over the last decade: as the article notes, the Human Genome Project, the SNP Consortium and the HapMap Project all serve as hugely successful models of large-scale collaboration across international borders and the free public release of data.
Collaborations of this scale are essential for human genetics to continue moving forward at its current exhausting pace. I look forward to seeing how this project evolves over the next few years.
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