NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The National Institutes of Health has issued three new grant programs to support the genetic and genomic studies of the African frog variety Xenopus that will support its use as a vertebrate model for biomedical research.
The three programs will be supported by multiple NIH institutes and by the Trans-NIH Xenopus Working Group. The goal is to develop new tools of genetic or genomic resources that are of high priority to the Xenopus community. These could advance the detection and characterization of genes, pathways, and phenotypes of interest in Xenopus development, and the genesis of organs and cellular processes including division, signaling, and migration.
The programs also will fund studies that use tools or technologies that have not been used in Xenopus research.
The research parameters covered under these grants could include, but is not limited to development or use of techniques for targeting-induced local lesions in genomes; gene inactivation and gene expression manipulation, homologous recombination, and gene trapping; high-throughput small molecule screens; and screens that focus on identifying novel developmental genes and pathways.
The Genetic and Genomic Analysis of Xenopus grants include an R01 award that may vary in funding amount and duration, an R21 grant that may provide up to $275,000 over a two-year period, and an R03 grant that may grant up to $100,000 over a two-year period.