cDNA Sequencing

Within the DOE Human Genome Program, support began in 1990 for high-throughput analyses of cDNAs, the sturdy representatives of the cell's fragile messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for gene expression.� In 1994 I.M.A.G.E was founded to coordinate worldwide, public-sector efforts in cDNA analyses. For a few years, most cDNA sequencing was used to catalogue cDNAs by short sequence reads called expressed sequence tags (ESTs).� In the fall of 1996, several research teams worldwide announced plans for complete sequencing of cDNAs.

The following spring, a series of international cDNA workshops began. Building on the Integrated Molecular Analysis of Genome Expression (I.M.A.G.E.) consortium, the workshops' objectives were to extend the infrastructure I.M.A.G.E. has provided since 1994 to the challenges of complete cDNA sequencing. The workshops are listed below.

• TRANSCRIPTOME 2003 was held November 16-19, 2003 in Tokyo under the sub-title "From Functional Genomics to Systems Biology" with planning by Zhu Chen, Vice President of Chinese Academy of Science and Sumio Sugano, The University of Tokyo. It was immediately preceded by H-Invit 2.

  H-Invitational 2 Annotation Jamboree, November 10-15, 2003
  The H-Inv 1 dataset was updated with incorporation about 10,000 newly sequenced full-length cDNA clones into the database. The report on 41,000 cDNAs was published online on April 20, 2004. (Article) The dataset is available at http://www.h-invitational.jp. See also

  • "New Global Database Lends a Hand to Gene Hunters," Science, Vol 304, Issue 5669, 368, 16 April 2004 (subscription required)
  • "Human genome database unveiled," The Scientist, April 20, 2004
  • "Scientists decipher 21,000 genes," BBC News, 20 April, 2004
  • Public Library of Science Biology

H-Invitational Annotation Jamboree (H-Invit 1)- August 25-September 3, 2002
Experts in functional annotation of genes and proteins were invited from all over the world to participate. The goal was to deeply annotate the whole world collection of genes, represented as their full length transcripts. It was supported by several participant countries and hosted at the Japan Biological Information Research Center (JBIRC), Odaiba, Tokyo

• TRANSCRIPTOME 2002: From Functional Genomics to Systems Biology. March 10 to 13, 2002. Seattle, Washington, USA. Abstracts and Photos.

• TRANSCRIPTOME 2000: Towards comprehensive description of transcriptomes. 6-9 November 2000. Pasteur Institute, Paris.
  
• WCCS IV on March 24, 1999, adjoined the Kazusa International Workshop (March 22-23) entitled "Structural and Functional Analysis of Human cDNA" in Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan.

• WCCS III was replaced by a workshop held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's Banbury Center on March 23-25, 1998.
  
• WCCS II: September 15, 1997, Hilton Head, SC - Meeting report.

• WCCS I: May 19, 1997, Gaithersburg, MD - Meeting report.

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