NHGRI awards $163 million
Five research centers will do large-scale genome sequencing | By Maria W Anderson
The National Human Genomic Research Institute (NHGRI) recently awarded grants totaling $163 million in fiscal year 2004 to five US research centers for large-scale genome sequencing projects. Over the next 3 years, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, The Institute for Genome Research (TIGR), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's new Broad Institute, and Agencourt Biosciences will sequence the genomes of several target organisms totaling 54 billion base pairs. Jane Peterson, head of the extramural research division and program director of NHGRI's large-scale sequencing research network, said that the sequencing work “is the most important thing we can be doing right now. There are lots of sequences not in genes that are highly conserved, and this work will help us find regions of commonality and compare genomes.” Sequencing other organisms will “teach us how to read the [human] genome,” she said. NHGRI used a new selection process to choose the target organisms. Three teams of scientists investigated how an organism could contribute to the understanding of the human genome, of other model organisms' genomes, and of the biology underlying the evolution of genomes. A selection committee then used the teams' recommendations to generate a prioritized list of animals that includes the cow, the flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea, and a model marsupial, the South American possum. NHGRI administrators decided this past July that the old white paper selection process did not allow enough discussion and input from the science community about the organisms' importance and opted to adopt the new prioritization process. “These animals are important medical and, in the case of the cow, agricultural models,” said Peterson. Richard Wilson, director of Washington University's Genome Sequencing Center, told The Scientist that sequencing genomes of the target animals will help scientists “learn more basic biology and understand our environment better… and offer good, solid clues to what we can get out of the human genome.” Washington University researchers plan to work on drafts of the chimpanzee and mouse genomes. George Weinstock, codirector of Baylor's Human Genome Sequencing Center, said that genome sequences provide scientists with “a goldmine of information about their research organisms” and offer greater “efficiency with which people can zero in on genes.” Weinstock told The Scientist that Baylor geneticists are tackling the honeybee, cow, and sea urchin genomes; Baylor, TIGR, and Washington will collaborate on the sequence of the rhesus macaque, the main medical model for AIDS, and several Drosophila species' sequences will be split among the centers. Washington University, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Whitehead Institute (now included in the Broad Institute) previously received funding from NHGRI in 1999, but this is the first NHGRI involvement for Agencourt, the only commercial center among the five recipients, and TIGR. “We chose this set of centers because they are highly efficient, pushing costs down and production up,” Peterson said. “They have different strengths—some are good at assembling and annotating genomes, others are good at throughput. They complement each other.” Links for this article National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) http://www.genome.gov/
“NHGRI funds next generation of large-scale sequencing centers,” National Institutes of Health press release, November 7, 2003. http://www.genome.gov/11508922
T.M. Powledge, “Whither NHGRI?” The Scientist, April 16, 2003. http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030416/03/
NHGRI Target Organism Selection Procedures http://www.genome.gov/10002189
T.M. Powledge, “High-priority genomes announced,” The Scientist, September 13, 2002. http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20020913/08
Washington University School of Medicine Genome Sequencing Center http://genome.wustl.edu/
Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center http://www.hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu/
T. Powledge, “Macaque advocates seek higher status,” The Scientist, September 16, 2002. http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20020916/04
“Philanthropists Eli & Edythe Broad of Los Angeles give $100M to create institute with MIT, Harvard, and Whitehead to fulfill genome's promise for medicine,” Center for Genome Research press release, June 19, 2003. http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/broad/
Agencourt Biosciences Corp. http://www.agencourt.com/
The Institute for Genomic Research http://www.tigr.org/
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