CLEVELAND -- Case Western Reserve University has received a $2.2 million grant from the Charles B. Wang Foundation, Inc. of New York to establish the Center for Computational Genomics, where researchers will employ the power of computer science to analyze the function of genes and proteins in health and disease.

Wang is the founder and chairman of Computer Associates, the fourth largest software company in the world. There are less than 20 centers like this in the country, and computational genomics is one of the hottest areas of research today, both in academia and the business world.

The center will be the home of an interdisciplinary research and training program tackling cutting-edge problems in genomics (the study of genes) and bioinformatics (computer analysis of genetic information) as they relate to using the genome sequence of humans and mice to learn about the susceptibility, progress, treatment, and prevention of human diseases and their models in laboratory mice.

The program will focus on three related research problems:

• Identification and characterization of duplicated segments in the genomes of mammals. These duplications contribute to several genetic diseases as well as to evolutionary adaptations. Researchers at CWRU have pioneered the analysis and characterization of these duplications.
• Architecture of complex traits. Research on complex traits -- meaning many genes are involved -- has revealed that several diverse biological traits act together to lead to commonly occurring genetic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, schizophrenia, cardiovascular disease, and many others. The researchers will look at the components that contribute to these diseases, such as genes, blood chemistry, protein information, and other features.
• Genomic analysis of physiological pathways. The genomics revolution is enabling a systematic analysis of the ways in which genes work together in health and disease. CW
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