India's Ministry of Science & Technology this month issued a call through its department of biotechnology for research proposals focused on advancing research in RNAi biology.
The department said it is seeking research ideas to address issues in the areas of health, agriculture, food, and environment using RNAi science/technology approaches. Specific priority areas include the identification of genome-wide RNAi factors in various organisms; the identification of total cellular factors responsible for disease susceptibility or resistance using RNAi; and the identification of pathways for microRNA biogenesis and function.
It is also seeking input on research into using RNAi to understand the molecular processes for disease and metabolism in plants and animals; profiling, predicting, and manipulating miRNAs responsible for organism development and stress; the biogenesis and function of piwi-interacting RNAs; miRNAs as biomarkers for disease; the development of genome-wide shRNA libraries; and the development of RNAi-based diagnostics and therapeutics.
Additional information can be found here.