The National Institutes of Health awarded Northwestern University $17 million for a five-year project examining functional mouse genomics, one of the largest grants the institution has ever received. Through a technique honed by Joseph S. Takahashi, professor of neurobiology and physiology at Northwestern and director of the newly established NIH Neurogenomics Center, random point mutations are introduced using the chemical ENU (N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea), and the mice are screened for specific behaviors, such as response to light and the timing of activity and rest. In 1994, the technique enabled Takahashi, also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, to identify the circadian Clock mutant (M.H. Vitaterna et al., "Mutagenesis and mapping of a mouse gene Clock, essential for circadian science behavior," Science, 264:71925, 1994), and in 1997 to clone the gene (D. King et al., "Positional cloning of the mouse circadian Clock gene. Cell 89: 641-653, 1997). "The cloning of Clock was a proof of principle that this technique could be used for behavioral phenotypes," says Takahashi. To examine the functional properties of the mouse genome in this fashion, the center at Northwestern in collaboration with Columbia, Duke and the University of Iowa, will have to screen 10,000 mouse mutants a year for the next four to five years, and will introduce about 50 new mouse models to the scientific community each year. "That involves a lot of automation, data acquisition, and technical people to handle all of the data and the tracking of the mice," Takahashi says. Takahashi expects no increase in full-time faculty positions, however.
Increased Funding for Diabetes Research
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) received an infusion of $240 million that the agency hopes will advance ongoing work as well as fund new projects. Approved by Congress in response to lobbying by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the money will be distributed over a three-year period starting this year, says Judith Fradkin, director of the NIDDK's Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases Division,. "There is a lot of opportunity with diabetes 1," she adds. It's likely the money will be spent on the Human Genome Project, beta cell biology, immunology research, and the identification of the genes responsible for type 1 diabetes and its complications, she says. The funds will also enable the agency to expand existing projects, such as islet-transplantation research in primates, and support research on developing and testing less toxic methods than exist today for transplanting healthy pancreases. The NIDDK had previously requested grant applications for the creation of 20 clinical sites for human trials on research into preventing or delaying type 1 onset. These sites should be chosen by September. With the new infusion of funds, both the trials and the work on epidemiological and genetic studies can begin, and Fradkin expects that during the next few months, the NIDDK will make multiple requests for new project applications.
