Genomic Initiatives
NIAID's state-of-the-art, high-throughput Microbial Sequencing Centers can sequence genomes of microbes and invertebrate vectors of infectious diseases. Genomes that can be sequenced include microorganisms considered agents of bioterrorism and those responsible for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
For more information, contact: Dr. Maria Giovanni.
NIAID's Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center (PFGRC) is a centralized facility that provides scientists with the resources and reagents necessary to conduct functional genomics research on human pathogens and invertebrate vectors at no cost. The PFGRC provides scientists with genomic resources and reagents such as microarrays, protein expression clones, and genotyping and bioinformatics services. The PFGRC supports the training of scientists in the latest techniques in functional genomics and emerging genomic technologies.
For more information, contact: Dr. Maria Giovanni.
The primary goal of these Proteomics Centers is to characterize the pathogen and/or host cell proteome by identifying proteins associated with the biology of the microbes, mechanisms of microbial pathogenesis, innate and adaptive immune responses to infectious agents, and/or non-immune mediated host responses that contribute to microbial pathogenesis. It is anticipated that the research programs will discover targets for potential candidates for the next generation of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. This will be accomplished by using existing proteomics technologies, augmenting existing technologies, and/or creating novel proteomics approaches as well as performing early stage validation of these targets.
For more information, contact: Dr. Maureen Beanan.
- The Administrative Resource for Biodefense Proteomic Centers (non-government link) consolidates data generated by each Proteomics Research Center and makes it available to the scientific community through a publicly accessible Web site. This database serves as a central information source for reagents and validated protein targets and has recently been populated with the first data released.
For more information, contact Dr. Maureen Beanan.
NIAID's Bioinformatics Resource Centers will design, develop, maintain, and continuously update multi-organism databases, especially those related to biodefense. Organisms of particular interest are the NIAID Category A-C priority pathogens and those causing emerging and re-emerging diseases. The ultimate goal is to establish databases that will allow scientists to access a large amount of genomic and related data. This will facilitate the identification of potential targets for the development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Each contract will include establishing and maintaining an analysis resource that will serve as a companion to the databases for providing, developing, and enhancing standard and advanced analytical tools to help researchers access and analyze data.
For more information, contact: Dr. Andrei Gabrielian.
NIAID's Structural Genomics Centers for Infectious Diseases will apply state-of-the-art, high-throughput structural biology technologies to experimentally characterize the three-dimensional atomic structure of targeted proteins from pathogens in the NIAID Category A – C priority lists and organisms causing emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. The primary focus of the Structural Genomics Centers for Infectious Diseases are pathogen targets that are expected to have an important biological role and a potential impact on biomedical research, such as proteins involved in pathogenesis, proteins involved in antimicrobial/drug resistance, complexes with natural substrates, cofactors, receptors, and drug candidates.
For more information, contact: Valentina Di Francesco.
Protien Structure Initiative (PSI) Centers are funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)/NIAID:
- TB Structural Genomics Consortium
A collaboration of scientists in six countries formed to determine and analyze the structures of about 400 proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The group seeks to optimize the technical and managerial underpinnings of high-throughput structure determination and will develop a database of structures and functions. NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is co-funding this project with NIGMS, anticipates that this information also will lead to the design of new and improved drugs and vaccines for tuberculosis.
Principal investigator: Thomas Terwilliger, Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Structural Genomics of Pathogenic Protozoa Consortium
This group aims to develop new ways to solve protein structures from organisms known as protozoans, many species of which cause deadly diseases such as sleeping sickness, malaria, and Chagas' disease.
Principal investigator: Wim G. J. Hol, University of Washington
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