BETHESDA, Md., Tues., Aug. 22, 2006 The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today announced grants totaling $54 million over five years to establish one new Center of Excellence in Genomic Science (CEGS) and continue support for two existing centers.
NHGRI's CEGS program, which was started in 2001, pulls together multi-institution, interdisciplinary teams of scientists with the goal of making critical advances in genomic research. With the original centers' five-year awards slated to end this fall, NHGRI will renew the awards for the Microscale Life Sciences Center at the University of Washington, Seattle; and the Yale Center of Excellence in Genomic Science, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Each center will receive $18 million over the next five years. In addition, NHGRI awarded $18 million over five years to create a new CEGS at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., which will be called the Center for In Toto Genomic Analysis of Vertebrate Development.
"The CEGS program is vital to our efforts to apply innovative genomic tools and technologies to the study of human biology," said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "By fostering collaboration among researchers from many different disciplines, NHGRI aims to encourage innovation and build a powerful new framework for exploring human health and disease."
At the University of Washington's Microscale Life Sciences Center, a team led by Deirdre R. Meldrum, Ph.D., will focus on developing miniaturized, automated systems to swiftly detect and analyze the differences between healthy cells and diseased cells at the level of an individual cell. Such information is important for understanding the fundamental pathways involved in disease processes.
In particular, the Microscale Life Sciences Center is interested in using its technological innovations to answer questions that focus on t
'"/>
Contact: Geoff Spencer
spencerg@mail.nih.gov
301-402-0911
NIH/National Human Genome Research Institute
22-Aug-2006