Structural Genomics Consortium launches
The Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline and four of Canada's leading research-funding agencies have established a £40 million partnership to unravel the structure of hundreds of human proteins.
Over the next three years the newly formed Structural Genomics Consortium will determine the three-dimensional structure of more than 350 human proteins of potential medical importance. It is the only public-private partnership worldwide to undertake such a targeted programme of research.
Established as a charity, the consortium will operate from research laboratories at the Universities of Oxford and Toronto, and will collaborate with researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute. The protein targets to be studied will include those associated with cancer, neurological disorders and infectious diseases such as malaria. Information gleaned from the project will provide an insight into the proteins' functions, their role in safeguarding health or increasing susceptibility to disease, and their potential as therapeutic targets for new medicines. The consortium will aim to produce the first protein structures by the end of 2003; all structures will be released freely into the public domain.
The project has been made possible by the completion of the Human Genome Project, which has provided a printout of all genes in the human body. Initiatives such as the Structural Genomics Consortium represent a shift towards the next significant challenge - exploring the structure and function of proteins encoded by these genes, and using this knowledge to generate medically useful products.
Related links
European Bioinformatics Institute
University of Toronto, Canada
Press release (3 April 2003): Anglo-Canadian consortium announce 3D vision