Exploring the human genome

Howard Edenberg, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, inserts a microarray into a fluidics station. Microarrays can be used to determine to what extent a gene is functioning or not functioning.

From the IUSM Office of Public and Media Relations

The 21st century will be the age of biology, and will transform human society and lives in ways that we can no more foresee than people at the dawn of the 20th century could foresee the Internet.

It is this frontier IU School of Medicine (IUSM) scientists will explore with vigor, thanks to a $105 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the largest single grant ever received by the university and the largest gift ever awarded by the Indianapolis-based endowment.

“Physicians and researchers involved in the Indiana Genomics Initiative (INGEN) will collaborate to discover the mysteries of the human genome,” said Dr. D. Craig Brater, dean of IUSM and the primary architect of the proposal made to the Lilly Endowment. “We strongly believe that this will bring a day when we will be able to treat a cancer patient with therapy that destroys only cancer cells, leaving healthy tissue unharmed. Perhaps it will lead to a remedy or halt the spread of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease at the time they are diagnosed.”

Since the Human Genome Project, initiated by the United States in 1989, announced in mid-2000 that it had completed the working draft of the human genome, scientists at institutions throughout the world have stepped up research to make sense of these estimated three billion bits of human genomic information.

INGEN will create a world-class biomedical enterprise, building on existing resources at the School of Medicine. The school currently holds $130 million in research funding, which includes funds for the only federally sponsored gene vector production and research facility, for one of three molecular hematology research centers in the country and for a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer research center.

An important part of the initiative is IU’s commitment to develop a major center for the study of bioethics, especially relating to genomics research. In addition, the other key components of the initiative are genomics, bioinformatics, education, medical informatics and training for working scientists.

Within three years, IU will hire approximately 75 additional M.D., Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D. and master’s degree-level scientists, and will be positioned to attract exceptional scholars interested in genomics. The initiative will have a similar impact on student recruitment in information technology and other fields associated with the initiative at IU.

IU anticipates it will team up with other universities and private industry as INGEN progresses. The IU Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI) will support economic development and promote commercialization of scientific discoveries through a technology transfer assistance program. It will include access to seed and venture capital, work force enhancement, creation of biomedical companies and licensing to commercial partners.

The grant received from Lilly Endowment is for three years. In the first year, INGEN will recruit and hire clinical research coordinators, data managers, lab technicians and a secretary. Also, it will establish an education and training program for research coordinators, develop clinical protocols, and obtain and develop a system by which investigators can apply for funds.

In the second year, researchers will gather and enter data on phenotypes, acquire and install new equipment, and complete the renovation of the specimen collection laboratory information and management system of the Indiana Genomics Initiative cores.

In the third and final year funded by the grant, scientists will collect and extract DNA, begin DNA analyses and examine the function of newly discovered genetic mutations.

For more information about the Indiana Genomics Initiative, visit its Web site at:

http://www.ingen.iu.edu/

Read the special archival issue of the IU Home Pages about INGEN and the many players from throughout the university that will participate:

http://homepages.indiana.edu/120800/text/lilly.html