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Centre for Genomic Regulation Reaps $16.7M for Genome Architecture Project

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Investigators at Spain's Centre for Genomic Regulation have received €12.2 million ($16.7 million) in funding from the European Research Council for studies of genome architecture and how it influences gene expression, CRG said yesterday.

Four research teams at the CRG, which is located at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, will use the ERC funding to support a project called 4D-genome: Dynamics of human genome architecture in stable and temporal changes in gene expression.

The 4D-genome project partners aim to characterize the dynamics of the structure of the genome in three dimensions, and how it exists in time in relation to gene expression.

Although it is understood that a gene's location in space can modulate how a genome is expressed, it is less known how these relationships and interactions work, CRG said.

The long-term aim of this study will be to produce a 3D map of the properties of the genome and its expression that will enable researchers to discover how the genome responds to external changes and controls gene expression.

Two of the CRG project groups, one with expertise in 3D genome modeling and another with knowledge of responses to genetic alterations, will work together to provide a theoretical framework for studying the genome in time and space.

Two other groups with expertise in chromatin dynamics, hormonal responses in breast cancer cells, and cell differentiation through blood cell transcription factors, will conduct case studies and cell models for examining the role of genome architecture in gene expression.