NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) — The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine announced on Thursday that it has been awarded $17.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to fund omics-based infectious disease research.
According to the institute, the five-year grant will support the IGS Genome Center for Infectious Diseases, which uses large-scale genomics and bioinformatics to investigate pathogen biology, virulence, immune evasion, microbe-microbe interactions, and host-microbiome interactions. The center also maintains technology, data management, and administrative cores.
Specific projects to be funded include research into the interactions of multiple bacteria with each other, as well as the host and associated microbiome; an investigation of the genomic and transcriptomic analysis of fungal pathogens interacting with the host; and an integrated genomics research effort in parasitic tropical diseases.
"This grant allows us to integrate the study of multiple pathogens in model systems and with human samples in a way that is more representative of natural infection processes, which will provide greater understanding and more in-depth insights into these interactions," IGS's David Rasko, the principal investigator on the grant, said in a statement.