Usually, all of the cells in a person’s body have the same DNA. However, sometimes the DNA in one or more cells can change during a person’s lifetime. When this happens, the DNA that changed is called a “somatic variant.” The SMaHT project is trying to discover why and how some people develop somatic variants, and why some tissues might be more likely to develop somatic variants than others. SMaHT scientists also want to learn how we can detect somatic variants better to help predict and maybe even prevent many diseases.
Scientists can learn about a cell’s DNA by doing genome sequencing with the cell. For each SMaHT donor, scientists do genome sequencing from cells that come from multiple different tissues around the donor’s body. Doing genome sequencing with cells from many different tissues can help the scientists discover which of the donor’s tissues and organs develop the most somatic variants.
After SMaHT scientists do genomic sequencing with cells from the donor’s different tissues, the scientists enter what they found into a database. The scientific teams who initially analyze the donated tissues to do genome sequencing are called the “Genome Characterization Centers.”