The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is moving into the post-genomic era with a new five-year £300 million plan. Under the leadership of Allan Bradley, the Institute will concentrate on gene function, cancer genomics, and the genomes of model organisms such as the mouse and the zebrafish.
Funded by the Wellcome Trust — the World's largest biomedical charity — the Institute is a leading player in the Human Genome Project Consortium and was responsible for unravelling one third of the human genome. A 'working draft' of the genome was published earlier this year, but the work goes on — with the finished sequence expected by 2003. The Sanger Institute will build on the genome investment with new research on gene function and control. In the coming year, one third of the Institute's £63.3 million funding is earmarked for new projects. "The funding is a very strong commitment to our work by...