NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) has reeled in $450,000 in new funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute and $100,000 from the International Rett Syndrome Foundation to fund three genomics projects, GIS said today.
The NHGRI funding extends two grants awarded to GIS Senior Group Leader Yijun Ruan in 2007 under the ENCycolopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project.
One of these is a $300,000 grant to use whole-genome chromatin interaction analysis using Pair –End Tagging (ChIA-PET) technology developed at GIS to generate three-dimensional data sets of human genome conformation.
Another NHGRI grant provides $150,000 to support efforts to characterize and classify the human transcriptome.
The $100,000 two-year grant from the IRSF will support use of the ChIA-PET technology to study how a key gene linked to Rett syndrome interacts with regulatory networks in cells. Rett Syndrome is a developmental disorder caused by a mutation in the MeCP2 gene that primarily affects girls and can affect their ability to walk, eat, and talk.
"With the ChIA-PET technologies that we at the GIS developed, we will be able to interrogate the gene function regulatory networks involving MeCP2 with the aim of understanding the disease mechanisms and finding a cure for this and many other diseases," Ruan said in a statement.