Genetics and Genomic Medicine in Colombia

Colombia is a country located in the northwest corner of South America (Fig. 1). Initially founded in 1717 as the Viceroyalty of New Grenada, it underwent many transitions in its government and territory after winning its independence from Spain in 1819, finally becoming the Republic of Colombia in 1886 (CIA, World Fact Book: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/co.html ). Known officially as the Republic of Colombia, it shares borders with Venezuela and Brazil to the east; with Peru and Ecuador to the south; and with Panama to the Northwest; it also shares maritime borders with Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Costa Rica. Colombia is in a unique position in South America, possessing coasts on both Oceans; it borders the Caribbean Sea between Venezuela and Panama and the Pacific Ocean between Ecuador and Panama (CIA, World Fact Book). It has a total land area of 1,138,910 square km, which makes it slightly less than twice the size of Texas. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was 378.4 billion in 2013. Colombia’s growth was 4.7% in 2013, which was above the regional average of 3.7%. The World Bank considers Colombia a middle power and is part of the CIVETs group of six leading emergent markets (Schulz 2010). Colombia is also one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world. It is considered the most biodiverse by square kilometer (Declaraci on de Canc un: http://www.inecc.gob.mx/ descargas/ai/con199328.pdf) and has the largest number of endemisms (species not found anywhere else) (Convention on Biological Diversity: http://www.cbd.int/ countries/?country=co). Colombia hosts 10% of all species in the world, including 10% of all mammals, 14% of amphibian species, and 20% of birds; it has 32 terrestrial biomes and 314 types of ecosystems (SIB Colombia: http://www.sibcolombia.net/web/sib/cifras). Colombia has suffered from asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict for nearly 60 years; the conflict has decreased considerably since the year 2000 owing to governmental efforts to curb the violence (CIA, World Fact Book). Its life expectancy is 74, on par with the regional standard.