GA4GH: International policies and standards for data sharing across genomic research and healthcare.

The Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) aims to accelerate biomedical advances by enabling the responsible sharing of clinical and genomic data through both harmonized data aggregation and federated approaches. The decreasing cost of genomic sequencing (along with other genome-wide molecular assays) and increasing evidence of its clinical utility will soon drive the generation of sequence data from tens of millions of humans, with increasing levels of diversity. In this perspective, we present the GA4GH strategies for addressing the major challenges of this data revolution. We describe the GA4GH organization, which is fueled by the development efforts of eight Work Streams and informed by the needs of 24 Driver Projects and other key stakeholders. We present the GA4GH suite of secure, interoperable technical standards and policy frameworks and review the current status of standards, their relevance to key domains of research and clinical care, and future plans of GA4GH. Broad international participation in building, adopting, and deploying GA4GH standards and frameworks will catalyze an unprecedented effort in data sharing that will be critical to advancing genomic medicine and ensuring that all populations can access its benefits

TCF21 hypermethylation in genetically quiescent clear cell sarcoma of the kidney

Clear Cell Sarcoma of the Kidney (CCSK) is a rare childhood tumor whose molecular pathogenesis remains poorly understood. We analyzed a discovery set of 13 CCSKs for changes in chromosome copy number, mutations, rearrangements, global gene expression and global DNA methylation. No recurrent segmental chromosomal copy number changes or somatic variants (single nucleotide or small insertion/deletion) were identified. One tumor with t(10;17)(q22;p13) involving fusion of YHWAE with NUTM2B was identified. Integrated analysis of expression and methylation data identified promoter hypermethylation and low expression of the tumor suppressor gene TCF21 (Pod-1/capsulin/epicardin) in all CCSKs except the case with t(10;17) (q22;p13). TARID, the long noncoding RNA responsible for demethylating TCF21, was virtually undetectable in most CCSKs. TCF21 hypermethylation and decreased TARID expression were validated in an independent set of CCSK tumor samples. The presence of significant hypermethylation of TCF21, a transcription factor known to be active early in renal development, supports the hypothesis that hypermethylation of TCF21and/or decreased TARID expression lies within the pathogenic pathway of most CCSKs. Future studies are needed to functionally verify a tumorigenic role of TCF21 down-regulation and to tie this to the unique gene expression pattern of CCSK