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Human Genome News, November 1992; 4(4)
The University of Iowa (UI) Department of Pediatrics has been awarded a grant to become the ninth genome center funded by the NIH National Center for Human Genome Research. Jeffrey Murray (UI) will direct the 4-year, $15-million project. Principal goals are to (1) generate a high-resolution, microsatellite-based genetic linkage map of the entire human genome that will help locate disease-causing genes; (2) address the ethical, legal, and social issues (ELSI) raised by genetic research; and (3) train high school science teachers in genetics and the genome project.
The project involves research teams headed by Val Sheffield (UI); Ken Buetow (Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia); James Weber (Marshfield Medical Research Foundation, Marshfield, Wisconsin); and Geoffrey Duyk (Harvard University). Sheffield will study DNA variation in markers with an emphasis on cDNAs. Murray's team and the Marshfield investigators will characterize variations in inheritance patterns in a group of about 20 reference families. Harvard researchers will develop microsatellite DNA markers, and the Fox Chase Cancer Center team will use data collected by the other three groups to construct genetic maps and a database of information that can be used by researchers around the world.
Robert Weir and James Hanson (both at UI) will study ELSI concerns, including job discrimination and access to health care insurance for people with genetic diseases, quality of procedures for genetic testing, and confidentiality of test results. The project includes funds for U.S. high school science teachers to attend summer workshops at UI for laboratory work and lectures.
The other NCHGR-funded genome centers are at the Baylor College of Medicine (Houston); University of Michigan (Ann Arbor); Children's Hospital (Philadelphia); University of Utah (Salt Lake City); Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, Massachusetts); University of California, San Francisco; University of California, Berkeley; and Washington University (St. Louis).
HGMIS Staff
The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v4n4).
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international 13-year effort, 1990 to 2003. Primary goals were to discover the complete set of human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and determine the complete sequence of DNA bases in the human genome. See Timeline for more HGP history.
Published from 1989 until 2002, this newsletter facilitated HGP communication, helped prevent duplication of research effort, and informed persons interested in genome research.
