WASHINGTON--The US National Institutes of Health announced a full-length cDNA initiative this month to support the development of technologies that will facilitate the generation of a complete set of full-length human and other mammalian cDNA.
According to the institutes, current methods of cDNA clone and library production favor shorter, more heavily represented genes. Methods for isolating mRNA for use in cDNA construction work well with cell lines, but reliable methodologies for extraction of high-quality mRNA from tissues remains a challenge, the institutes said, adding that reliable, high-throughput methods to determine whether clones contain a copy of the full transcript, the full coding region, or a partial transcript are needed.
The program will be managed by a transinstitutes steering committee and will "ultimately provide a gold-standard set of reagents for use by the research community," the institute said. Letters of intent are due to the institutes April 6.