The Veterans Administration (VA) “Million Veterans Program” (MVP) www.research.va.gov/mvp is one of the VA’s initiatives to advance genomic research. Over 550,000 veterans have enrolled in MVP as of early spring 2017 and now MVP is the world’s largest genomic database tied to a healthcare system. The VA predicts that a million veterans will be enrolled by 2020.
Volunteers give blood samples, which are stored at the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center in Boston. The samples are coded so that researchers are blinded to the volunteers’ identities.
Researchers are able to access the anonymous MVP data through a computer network called the “Genomic Information System for Integrative Science” (GenISIS). According to Dr. Sumitra Muralidhar, Program Director for MVP, “Right now, 25 to 50 researchers may be accessing the system at the same time. As the system continues to develop, the hope is to have hundreds or even thousands or researchers work with GenISIS simultaneously.
The VA is forming partnerships with other organizations to expand MVP. The VA and the Department of Defense www.defense.gov have an agreement to open up enrollment to active-duty service members as well as veterans. This will likely expand the database to younger participants which will allow for more comparison between different demographics.
The VA and NIH www.nih.gov have an agreement to invite MVP participants to enroll in NIH’s Precision Medicine Initiative. MVP also has an important role in the National Cancer Moonshot initiative which aims to use precision medicine and genomics to find a cure for cancer.
The VA and the Department of Energy https://energy.gov are working together to use the expertise and large supercomputing capacity of DOE’s laboratories. Using these supercomputers will enable MVP researchers to analyze data on a scale not currently possible.
Today, VA researchers are already taking advantage of the data available while MVP continues to gather volunteers. Large studies on PTSD, substance abuse, obesity, and many other topics are underway using MVP data.