Logo

NIAID Awards $68.7M in Contracts for Microbial Systems Biology Studies

Oct 09, 2008

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases today awarded four five-year contracts worth a total of up to $68.7 million to support systems biology research for infectious disease.
 
The four projects aim to identify molecular features that distinguish bacterial and viral species and strains that may be targets for medical interventions for diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome, tuberculosis, and influenza.
 
Researchers will use a combination of computational and experimental methods to analyze, quantify, model, and predict the overall dynamics of the network of molecular components within microbes and the interactions of those components with human cells, NIAID said.
 
The institute said that these projects will expand upon data, technologies, and other resources that have already been generated through NIAID’s microbial genomics program.
 
The following institutions received the awards: 
  • Joshua Adkins of Battelle-Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who will focus on Salmonella enterica and Yersinia pestis;
  • Alan Aderem of the Institute for Systems Biology, who will focus on the influenza virus, and Staphylococcus aureus;
  • Gary Schoolnik of Stanford University, who will focus on Mycobacterium tuberculosis; and
  • Michael Katze of the University of Washington, who will focus on the influenza virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus.

Breaking News
The Scan

And Back

The New York Times reports that missing SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences are back in a different database.

Lacks Family Hires Attorney

A lawyer for the family of Henrietta Lacks plans to seek compensation from pharmaceutical companies that have used her cancer cells in product development, the Baltimore Sun reports.

For the Unknown

The Associated Press reports that family members are calling on the US military to use new DNA analysis techniques to identify unknown sailors and Marines who were on the USS Arizona.

PLOS Papers on Congenital Heart Disease, COVID-19 Infection Host MicroRNAs, Multiple Malformation Mutations

In PLOS this week: new genes linked to congenital heart disease, microRNAs with altered expression in COVID-19, and more.