BETHESDA, Md.--The National Human Genome Research Institute here announced that seven sequencing projects have been awarded $60.5 million in funding in the third year of the institute's sequencing strategy pilot project. The group aims to deposit 117 million bases into public databases in the next year, raising the amount of human DNA sequence contributed by the federally funded Human Genome Project to over 184 million bases.
Two investigators new to the pilot program are Glenn Evans at the University of Texas South western Medical Center, awarded $5.04 million, and Bruce Roe of the University of Oklahoma, awarded $2 million. Investigators receiving continued funding are Richard Gibbs, Baylor College of Medicine ($8 million); Eric Lander, White head Institute/MIT ($8.2 million); Richard Myers, Stanford University ($3 million); Maynard Olson, University of Washington ($7.5 million); and Robert Waterston, Washington University ($26.8 million). Former grant recipient, the Institute for Genomic Research has withdrawn from the human genome sequencing pilot project after its founder, Craig Venter, announced plans to launch a private company with Perkin Elmer Applied Biosystems, devoted to sequencing the entire human genome within three years.