
About us
Collecting genomic data from patients is a key technology in biomedical research. Increasingly, this type of data is also generated in diagnostics and in the context of personalized therapies. Extensively characterized data sets are currently created at a growing number of research facilities across Germany. Integration of these local data sets is essential for their optimal use. Modern computer services such as machine learning or artificial intelligence, for example, only unfold their full potential with access to combined big data. However, the need to make data open and FAIR for the research community must always be weighed against the protection of the patient’s privacy.
To balance data protection and data sharing, GHGA (German Human Genome-Phenome Archive) is building a national infrastructure for human genome data. This will allow highly sensitive genome data to be merged, saved and analyzed in a uniform, data protection-compliant framework.
As a national node of the federated European Genome Phenome Archive (EGA), GHGA can follow national regulations on data protection and at the same time be closely linked to international data infrastructures. This makes the data sets easy to find, accessible and optimally usable for national and international research.
GHGA will also address the research community’s desires for efficient, easy-to-use, large-scale analysis. Validation of research results on other cohorts is another key resource that GHGA will offer. To do so, GHGA relies and builds on existing national omics data suppliers and their IT infrastructures in order to create a harmonized, interoperable infrastructure.
Goals
- Provide a national secure and trustworthy long-term archive of human omics data
- Address legal and ethical barriers to data sharing through a unified ethico-legal framework
- Increase FAIRness of omics data (embedding with national and international data infrastructures)
- Provide community-specific data portals to meet their specific needs for datasets and analytical tools
- Training on efficient and responsible use and management of omics data in research
- Democratize access to and analysis/reprocessing of large-scale omics data for research through a cloud-based analytics platform
Task Area


Prof. Dr. Oliver Stegle
Speaker of the consortium

German Cancer Research Center
Applicant institution

Oliver Kohlbacher
Board of Directors

Jan Korbel
Board of Directors

Eva Winkler
Board of Directors
(Co-)applicant institutions and (co-)speakers:
- Peer Bork – EMBL, Heidelberg
- Ivo Buchhalter – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Andreas Dahl – TU Dresden, Dresden
- Julien Gagneur – TUM, München
- Wolfgang Huber – EMBL, Heidelberg
- Daniel Hübschmann – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Oliver Kohlbacher – EKUT, Tübingen
- Jan Korbel – EMBL, Heidelberg
- Martin Lablans – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Ulrich Lang – UzK, Köln
- Peter Lichter – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Fruzsina Molnár-Gábor – HAdW, Heidelberg
- Susanne Motameny – UzK, Köln
- Sven Nahnsen – EKUT, Tübingen
- Uwe Ohler – MDC, Berlin
- Stephan Ossowski – UKT, Tübingen
- Annette Peters – HMGU, München
- Olaf Rieß – UKT, Tübingen
- Philip Rosenstiel – UKI, Kiel
- Thorsten Schlomm – CHARITE, Berlin
- Joachim Schultze – DZNE, Bonn
- Oliver Stegle – DKFZ/EMBL, Heidelberg
- Jörn Walter – UdS, Saarbrücken
- Thomas Walter – EKUT, Tübingen
- Juliane Winkelmann – HMGU & TUM, München
- Eva Winkler – UHH, Heidelberg
- Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (EKUT)
- University Hospital Tübingen (UKT)
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité)
- Technische Universität München (TUM)
- Europäisches Laboratorium für Molekularbiologie (EMBL)
- Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Technische Universität
- Dresden (TU Dresden)
- University Hospital Heidelberg (UHH)
- Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (HAdW)
- Universität zu Köln (UzK)
- Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein (UKI)
- Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU)
- Dt. Zentrum für Neurodeg. Erkrankungen e.V. (DZNE)
- Universität des Saarlandes (UdS)
- German National Cohort (GNC)
Participating Institutions
- Viktor Achter – UzK
- Dieter Beule – MDC, Berlin
- Benedikt Brors – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Holm Graessner – UKT, Tübingen
- Michael Hummel – Charité, Berlin
- Dirk Jäger – UHH, Heidelberg
- Jens Krüger – EKUT, Tübingen
- Nisar Malek – UKT, Tübingen
- Thomas Meitinger – HMGU & TUM, München
- Wolfgang E. Nagel – TU Dresden, Dresden
- Julio Saez-Rodriguez – UHH, Heidelberg
- Christoph Schickhardt – UHH, Heidelberg
- Thomas Keane – EMBL-EBI Cambridge, UK
- Mario Fritz & Ninja Marnau – CISPA Saarbrücken
- Stephan Hachinger – LRZ München
- Alice McHardy – HZI Braunschweig
- Stefan Fröhling & Hanno Glimm – National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg and Dresden

Oliver Stegle
Speaker of the consortium

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
Antragsstellende Institution

Oliver Kohlbacher
Board of Directors

Jan Korbel
Board of Directors

Eva Winkler
Board of Directors
(Co-)applicant institutions and (co-)speakers:
- Peer Bork – EMBL, Heidelberg
- Ivo Buchhalter – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Andreas Dahl – TU Dresden, Dresden
- Julien Gagneur – TUM, München
- Wolfgang Huber – EMBL, Heidelberg
- Daniel Hübschmann – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Oliver Kohlbacher – EKUT, Tübingen
- Jan Korbel – EMBL, Heidelberg
- Martin Lablans – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Ulrich Lang – UzK, Köln
- Peter Lichter – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Fruzsina Molnár-Gábor – HAdW, Heidelberg
- Susanne Motameny – UzK, Köln
- Sven Nahnsen – EKUT, Tübingen
- Uwe Ohler – MDC, Berlin
- Stephan Ossowski – UKT, Tübingen
- Annette Peters – HMGU, München
- Olaf Rieß – UKT, Tübingen
- Philip Rosenstiel – UKI, Kiel
- Thorsten Schlomm – CHARITE, Berlin
- Joachim Schultze – DZNE, Bonn
- Oliver Stegle – DKFZ/EMBL, Heidelberg
- Jörn Walter – UdS, Saarbrücken
- Thomas Walter – EKUT, Tübingen
- Juliane Winkelmann – HMGU & TUM, München
- Eva Winkler – UHH, Heidelberg
- Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (EKUT)
- University Hospital Tübingen (UKT)
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité)
- Technische Universität München (TUM)
- Europäisches Laboratorium für Molekularbiologie (EMBL)
- Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Technische Universität
- Dresden (TU Dresden)
- University Hospital Heidelberg (UHH)
- Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (HAdW)
- Universität zu Köln (UzK)
- Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein (UKI)
- Helmholtz Zentrum München (HMGU)
- Dt. Zentrum für Neurodeg. Erkrankungen e.V. (DZNE)
- Universität des Saarlandes (UdS)
- German National Cohort (GNC)
Participating institutions:
- Viktor Achter – UzK
- Dieter Beule – MDC, Berlin
- Benedikt Brors – DKFZ, Heidelberg
- Holm Graessner – UKT, Tübingen
- Michael Hummel – Charité, Berlin
- Dirk Jäger – UHH, Heidelberg
- Jens Krüger – EKUT, Tübingen
- Nisar Malek – UKT, Tübingen
- Thomas Meitinger – HMGU & TUM, München
- Wolfgang E. Nagel – TU Dresden, Dresden
- Julio Saez-Rodriguez – UHH, Heidelberg
- Christoph Schickhardt – UHH, Heidelberg
- Thomas Keane – EMBL-EBI Cambridge, UK
- Mario Fritz & Ninja Marnau – CISPA Saarbrücken
- Stephan Hachinger – LRZ München
- Alice McHardy – HZI Braunschweig
- Stefan Fröhling & Hanno Glimm – National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), Heidelberg and Dresden