NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has awarded a $112,000 grant for fiscal year 2015 to help fund a gene expression analysis core at Brigham and Women's Hospital .
The funding supports a project led by Vijay Kuchroo of Harvard University and Brigham and Women's. In the grant abstract, the researchers said that the multi-tiered core allows for multiplexed expression analysis of up to 500 genes in a single RNA sample using NanoString Technologies' nCounter platform. They added that the core has been set up so that expression data obtained from different projects and cell types can be readily analyzed and compared.
Together with ChlP-seq and RNA-seq data, the expression analysis will be used to develop a molecular map to understand the development, function, and regulation of IL-27-driven type 1 regulatory T-cells. Findings could be used to identify essential drug targets for immunomodulatory therapies for multiple sclerosis.
The expression core project group collaborates with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute.
In October, Seattle-based NanoString announced a collaboration with Brigham and Women's on cancer-based diagnostics using the nCounter platform.