Roche Applied Science has announced the winners of the 10 Gigabase Grant programme for DNA sequencing and transcriptome analysis studies.
The programme awards up to 10 gigabases of sequencing using the Genome Sequencer FLX system to individual researchers, institutions or corporations as selected by a team of external scientific reviewers representing the fields of plant genomics and agriculture, human genetics and genomics, metagenomics and evolutionary biology.
Due to the large number of strong applicants, two first-place grants were awarded.
One first-place winner, a team of researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute, Switzerland, and the University of Glasgow, UK, plans to use the technology of the Genome Sequencer FLX system to uncover genetic mutations associated with drug resistance in a parasite species responsible for African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness).
The other first-place winner is a team of researchers at the Emory University, Washington University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which plans to perform metagenomic analysis of the fungal gardens formed by leaf-cutting ants.
The 10GB winning project in Europe, led by Pascal Maser from the Swiss Tropical Institute (formerly University of Bern), together with Harry de Koning from the University of Glasgow, will use the sequencing award to uncover low-frequency genetic mutations in the parasite species Trypanosoma brucei subspecies, which causes African sleeping sickness.
The disease occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and is fatal if left untreated, a situation that is aggravated by the occurrence of drug-resistant strains.
The 10GB award in North America will support the sequencing efforts of the fungal garden ant project, led by Nicole Gerardo from Emory University, Cameron Currie from the University of Wisconsin, and George Weinstock from Washington University in St Louis.
For approximately 50 million years, leaf-cutting ants have been farming fungi for food.
Like human agriculture, this ancient system is complex, involving symbiotic associations between farmers, crops, beneficial microbes and harmful pathogens.
'Building on previous ecological and evolutionary studies, we will utilise metagenomics, transcriptomics and genomics based on the Genome Sequencer FLX system to explore the molecular processes underlying these intimate associations,' said Nicole Gerardo.
'While doing so, we will build an infrastructure to integrate community-based genome exploration with cross-disciplinary studies in genomics, molecular biology, developmental biology, ecology and evolution,' she added.
Runner-up winners include projects to sequence the Arctic ice metagenome, examine the evolution of the drosophila genome, and perform genomic analysis of the silver fox.
