About the VICC

Motivation

The field of precision medicine aspires to a future in which a cancer patient’s molecular information can be used to inform diagnosis, prognosis and treatment options most likely to benefit that individual patient. Many groups have created knowledgebases to annotate cancer genomic mutations associated with evidence of pathogenicity or relevant treatment options. However, clinicians and researchers are unable to fully utilize the accumulated knowledge derived from such efforts. Integration of the available knowledge is currently infeasible because each group curates their own knowledgebase without adherence to any interoperability standards. Therefore, there is a clear need to standardize and coordinate clinical-genomics curation efforts, to facilitate integration of the knowledge and evidence provided by institutions in academia, government, and industry alike.

A Global Alliance

Formation of the VICC was supported by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH). The VICC effort evolved out of the Genotype2Phenotype Task Team of the GA4GH in 2016. Now a stand-alone organization and GA4GH Driver Project, the VICC is led by a diverse group of experts in the curation, representation, and interpretation of clinical-genomics evidence. Learn more about our directors and working group leaders on our leadership page.

In our founding work, we established a cooperative partnership between 6 international clinical interpretation knowledgebases to build an analysis and initial search tool for harmonized clinical variant evidence in cancers (see the knowledgebase integration project page for details).

A Call to Action

Our current efforts focus on several complementary areas of research across several active projects. As an open consortium, we are always seeking new participants to contribute and drive our projects and standard development. We work closely with several standards organizations to achieve these aims, which are powered by diverse perspectives and relevant expertise around the world. See our research products to learn more about our contributions to recent standards and publications, and consider joining our cause!