Wellcome Trust Commits £8 Million to Sequence Malaria Parasite Gene

LONDON--The Wellcome Trust has announced it will commit £8 million toward a project to se quence the genome of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. The three-year grant covers more than half the estimated $20 million cost of the international effort, which is also receiving US funding. The majority of the project work is being done at the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Centre, Hinxton, UK, and The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Md. Scientists predict the genome will be completely sequenced within three years.