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An American research institute is to step up its programme to explore the human genome (the entirety of people’s hereditary information)

In addition to continuing studies, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), plans to spend a further 416 million dollars on new efforts to find causes of inherited conditions, including heart diseases, and accelerate its use in the care of patients

The genome sequencing programme will help doctors understand how genomes affect health and disease and may help to create a generation of new health treatments.

A spokesman for the NHGRI said that since 1996, the institute had supported a large-scale sequencing programme, involving groups in three major centres across America -  The Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts.; The Genome Institute at Washington University, St. Louis; and the Human Genome Sequencing Centre at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

These three centres generated most of the American sequence contribution to the Human Genome Project, which ended in 2003.

Since then, they had produced genomic data for numerous studies, including the 1000 Genomes Project, a study of human genetic variation, and The Cancer Genome Atlas, an NHGRI partnership with the National Cancer Institute to identify genomic changes involved in cancer.

He said the centres’ research had also provided a basis for the technological advances that drove down the cost of genome sequencing to a point where its use in medical care may become practical.

"In the strategic plan published earlier this year, we described NHGRI's vision for fulfilling the promise of genomics to advance human health," said NHGRI director Dr Eric Green.

"The vision builds on the success of the Human Genome Project and of the genomic studies that have been pursued since its completion.  It charts a course to accelerate the application of genomics to medical care. With the investments made over the last decade, and the new ones that we are now announcing, we believe we are moving along the path towards the realisation of genomic medicine."

The genome sequencing programme's new funding will be distributed over four years starting in 2012. The largest share of the programme — initially $86 million a year — will go to the large genome sequencing centres at the Broad Institute, Washington University and Baylor College of Medicine.

The funding will support each centre's basic research into how the human genome works; studies on the genetic contributions to common complex illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease; and ongoing special projects, such as The Cancer Genome Atlas.

The centres will also be involved in new medical initiatives, and will continue to implement technological advances in DNA sequencing and information management systems; develop new techniques and software to analyse and understand the massive amounts of DNA sequence data now being produced; and continue to train genomic researchers and technicians.