Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 14, 2005|Volume 34, Number 7

Yale participating in human genome initiative

Yale is a founding member of the Genome-Wide RNAi Global Initiative, an alliance of top international biomedical research centers formed to speed scientific and medical discoveries that target genes of the entire human genome.

The initiative is sponsored by Dharmacon Inc., manufacturer of the first complete human genome siRNA library, or compilation of short, interfering ribonucleic acid sequences. The library is designed to determine when individual genes are functioning. It uses a format that is accessible to researchers for detailed analysis of individual genes, gene families and metabolic pathways.

The siRNA sequences have blueprints in DNA and are transcribed, but not translated into proteins. Researchers have recently found that several siRNAs regulate critical gene functions in normal development and in development of cancer.

"Participation in this consortium gives us a cutting-edge technology to systematically screen the human genome using cell-based models of human diseases," says Kevin P. White, associate professor of genetics, ecology and evolutionary biology and the lead investigator for Yale.

The library will be available to the Yale research community and will be used to screen for human gene functions. "Coupling Yale's expertise in the molecular basis of human disease with access to this siRNA library has a tremendous potential for discoveries that will lead to better diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for a wide variety of diseases, including most forms of cancer," says White.

Founding members of the Global Initiative have a broad spectrum of biomedical research interests that will provide a forum for sharing research protocols, establishing experimental standards, and developing ways to exchange and compare data. The continued interaction is expected to help optimize rapid, genome-wide screening and accelerate drug discovery.

The other founding members of the Genome-Wide RNAi Global Initiative are the Campbell Family Institute for Breast Cancer Research at Princess Margaret Hospital and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in collaboration with the University of Toronto, the Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded scientists at the London Research Institute and the Institute of Cancer Research, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the University of Nebraska Medical School, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Scottish Centre for Genomic Technology and Informatics based at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The membership of the global initiative is expected to expand further as additional not-for-profit research institutions from North America, Europe and Asia join in the coming months. Its first meeting will take place in Boston on Oct. 17-18.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

University will work to curb greenhouse gas emissions

From bones to bronze: Building Torosaurus

Yale participating in human genome initiative

Former World Fellows will return to campus for forum

Literary theorist wins Israel's EMET Prize for contributions

'Aesthetics & Politics' in Pakistan to be explored

Experts to address global warming at conference

Treasures from Yale's Collections

Panel to focus on debate over career vs. motherhood

Event honors Jacques Derrida, originator of 'deconstruction'

Chemistry department symposium to celebrate opening of building

Events pay tribute to former University printer Greer Allen

Yale Books in Brief

Edward Kaplan has been designated as an INFORMS fellow