US funds Aussie uni for $9m mouse gene library

Australian National University researchers have been awarded a $9 million grant by the US Government to establish a unique library of mice in order to identify genes which regulate immunity and tolerance of disease.

"This research has the potential to take the world a step closer to identifying a new generation of drugs to treat cancer, diabetes and other diseases," says Professor Chris Goodnow, who is leading the project.

"Now that human and mouse genomes have been sequenced, it is like we know how to spell all the words in the dictionary but we haven't identified their function.

"By establishing a collection of several thousand mice with subtle gene differences, we will be able to screen them in parallel during exposure to disease and therefore identify genes with important disease-fighting functions."

The grant was awarded by the US National Institute for Health and will be shared by ANU researchers and a consortium of researchers at the University of California. It is very unusual for the Institute to make such a large grant, particularly when the majority of the funding is to an overseas institution.

"We're hoping to identify genes and proteins and pathways that could be targeted by drugs or vaccines to turn off some responses - for example to stop organ transplants being rejected," Prof. Goodnow said.

"We also aim to identify the 'wiring' within the human body which allows us to turn on other responses - for example, after a tumour has been surgically removed from a person, to stimulate immune cells for a short time to destroy cancer cells which may remain."

Item provided courtesy of The Australian National University