Russia Targets National Database of 1 Million Genomes by 2030
By Eugene Gerden
August 7, 2025 | Russia plans to significantly expand its national database of genetic information by 2030 according to a recent decree approved by the Russian government. As part of the plans, the volume of the already existing database will be increased by 35 times and reach 35 petabytes by 2030.
Implementation of the project will be regulated by a new legislative act known as Strategic Direction in the Field of Digital Transformation of Science and Education, which was approved by the Russian government in the middle of July.
In accordance with the document, the total volume of publicly available data on genetic information in the database will reach 1 petabyte already this year and 10 petabytes by 2027. At least 60 major research centers in Russia will actively supply data to this database until 2030.
The main target of the project is to create a database that will contain at least 1 million genomes. That will be sufficient to obtain statistically reliable data on the genetic diversity of Russians. At present the database contains less than 100,000 read genomes. In fact, the first stage of this project was launched as far back as in 2021 with the introduction of special digital genetic passports that contained genome sequencing of each citizen of the country. These data were further used for the formation of genetic profiles and identification of susceptibility to diseases.
As the scientific director of the national genetic initiative “100,000 + Me”, Konstantin Severinov recently told the Russian Vedomosti business paper, the initiative plans to grow to 100,000 read genomes by the end of 2025. As Severinov and other scientists believe, the analysis of the dataset will improve diagnostic methods for genetic and socially significant diseases, help develop new approaches to their therapy, and enable a personalized approach to prescribing drugs.
According to Severinov, Russia is looking to other countries building their own genetic databases. For example, in the UK, a similar project to collect 100,000 genomes was later grown into 500,000 genomes. National genomic databases are being created in many countries in Europe and Asia.
The establishment of the Genetics Database in Russia became possible thanks to the amendments to the federal law “On state regulation in the field of genetic engineering activities", which came into force in September last year.
The Russian database stores genetic information on various bio-samples, including plants, animals, microorganisms, as well as human genetic data (without personalization). It is managed by the National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy.
As Maxim Patrushev, head of the Kurchatov Genome Center, said during a conference, Forum of National Achievements: Science and Universities, the project is very important for Russia.
“This is not just some kind of information warehouse. Biology in general, like genetics in particular, is a science about data. Therefore, it is important for us to both consolidate information in one place and to create and develop algorithms that process this information,” he said.
Until now, Russia has not had a single digital system with genetic information. Unique data collections were available at scientific institutes across the country, but most of sources operated independently of each other, and there was a lack of the centralized access.
According to an official spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, the new database is designed to facilitate the exchange of information and speed up genetic research. He also added, researchers will be able to avoid doing extra work and use samples that have already been sequenced by their colleagues.
This is not the first attempt to create a large-scale genome database in Russia. Earlier the so-called Genomes Project was launched at St. Petersburg State University, however it was not fully implemented due to technical difficulties. Also in October 2024, the Russian Federal Medical and Biological Agency created the first domestic database of population frequencies of genetic variants of the Russian population. Finally, in December 2024, a project to study the genomes of living organisms in the Arctic region, known as A Thousand Arctic Genomes was launched in Russia. As part of the project, scientists will create genetic data banks and perform whole-genome sequencing of Arctic inhabitants in order to assess biodiversity and use the data obtained to preserve it