Communities of focus

Filipino community

 

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Vietnamese community

 

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Communities we’re expanding to

In the coming months, we’ll be working with the following communities to include community members in the OurDNA program.

And we plan to work with many more communities of African, Middle-Eastern, Oceanian and Southeast Asian background. If you are a part of one of these communities and are interested in partnering with us, fill out the expression of interest form linked below.

Upcoming community EOI

Are you part of one of our communities of focus? Are you interested in learning about and helping the OurDNA program to advance medical research that might benefit your community members? Please let us know by filling in this form. A member of the team will be in contact with you soon.

Upcoming events

Join us at a community event to learn more and be part of the change.

Do you have questions?

If you can’t find the answer you’re looking for, contact us.

To take part in OurDNA, you must:

  • Be over 18 years old
  • Be eligible for Medicare
  • Be able to give a blood sample in Victoria or New South Wales
  • Self-identify as having ancestry from one of the communities underrepresented in genetics resources. Visit this page to check which communities we are actively working with.
  • People cannot participate if they or anyone in their close family has a known severe genetic health condition, like cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy. This does not include common conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, cancer or diabetes.

OurDNA is currently funded until the end of 2027. It is our intention to continue our work until all Australian communities are represented and for the OurDNA database and sample bank to be available for as long as possible for researchers. 

The goal of the OurDNA program is to include representation in genetic resources of people from specific underrepresented communities in genetic resources. However, we understand and respect that some people may identify as being part of one cultural community, but have a different genetic background. 

If you identify as having ancestry from one of the communities we are actively working with, but you are not sure of your background or do not know, we encourage you to take part.

While we are not working directly in Indigenous communities, we are an active member of the ALIGN and CONNECT consortia, national Indigenous-led efforts that are working to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in genomic medicine and research.

We provide technical advice for the development of genomic data infrastructure for nationally consistent, culturally appropriate, ethical storage, management, and sharing of genomic data to benefit Indigenous Australians.