Molecules, Genes and Cells

26 March 2009

Among the awards made through our Molecules, Genes and Cells stream is a project grant to researchers at the University of Oxford. They will develop statistical and computational methods to analyse data from the 1000 Genomes Project, an international collaboration to create a detailed catalogue of human genetic variation.

Also at Oxford, Professor Peter Cook has received funding to examine how the location of a gene in the nucleus affects its activity. This research is relevant to the development of gene therapies, for which it is important to know how an inserted gene will behave in a new nucleus.

Dr Helen Arthur from Newcastle University and Dr Marcus Fruttiger at University College London will use knockout mice to investigate the protein endoglin and its role in blood vessel formation - work that could have implications for the treatment of heart disease and cancer.