Grants in 2008 will total $18 million.
NIH will invest more than $190 million over the next five years in the NIH Roadmap Epigenomics Program. The first grants will total approximately $18 million in 2008.
Funding will focus on four areas: epigenome mapping centers, epigenomics data analysis and coordination, technology development, and the discovery of novel epigenetic marks in mammalian cells.
The data analysis and coordination center will provide an informatics and analysis resource to integrate all components. It will also form the basis for the generation of the reference epigenome maps, according to the NIH. The center will be led by Aleksandar Milosavljevic, Ph.D., and Arthur Beaudet, M.D., at the Baylor College of Medicine.
NIH will award grants to four centers to map the epigenomes of a variety of human cells. These four organizations are Production Sequencing of Reference Human Epigenomes at the Broad Institute, The San Diego Epigenome Center at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Integrated Epigenetic Maps of Human Embryonic and Adult at the University of California, San Francisco, and Northwest Reference Epigenome Mapping Center at the University of Washington.
Secondly, the principal investigators awarded technology development grants for epigenomics research include:
- Mark T. Bedford, Ph.D., University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas and Or P. Gozani, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University
- Harold G. Craighead, Ph.D., and Paul D. Soloway, Ph.D., Cornell University
- Howard C. Hang, Ph.D., Rockefeller University
- Steven Henikoff, Ph.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
- Shohei Koide, Ph.D., University of Chicago
- Rihe Liu, Ph.D., University of North Carolina
- Obi D. Mitra, Ph.D., Washington University
- Huidong Shi, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia and Kun Zhang, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego
- Alan Jackson, Tackett, Ph.D., University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and
- Sean D. Taverna, Ph.D., John Hopkins University
Lastly, the NIH will give awards aimed at determining whether novel genome-wide regulating factors exist and whether such factors may be specific to a given cell type. The following principal investigators will receive discovery grants:
- Xian Chen, Ph.D. and Brian D. Strahl, Ph.D., University of North Carolina
- Xiaodong Cheng, Ph.D., Emory University
- Patrick A. Grant, Ph.D., University of Virginia
- Richard Alan Katz, Ph.D., Institute for Cancer Research
- Marjorie A. Oettinger, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
- Alexi V. Tulin, Ph.D., and Kenneth S. Zaret, Ph.D., Institute for Cancer Research
- Peter E. Warburton, Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University
- Yingming Zhao, Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
