LONDON ¿ The Wellcome Trust implemented a #300 million (US$438 million) program of ¿post-genomic¿ research that aims to translate the gene sequence data generated by the Human Genome Project into real health care benefits.

The five-year program will be carried out at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, where the trust, which is the world¿s largest medical charity, funded the sequencing of one-third of the human genome.

The director of the institute, Allan Bradley, said, ¿We will bring biology to the genome and translate the enormous amount of information encoded in our DNA into an understanding of gene function, providing the stimulus for real health care advances.¿ Bradley came from the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas to take over the post of director a year ago.

The key elements are to add value to the genome sequence by identifying all the genes within the human genome; finding the regions of the genome that control whether genes are turned on or off; comparing the human genome with genomes of model organisms; finding out where and when genes are expressed in the body ¿ both during development and in adult tissues; identifying disease-causing genes in pathogens; and predicting the functions of genes.

One of the largest single projects has been allocated #36 million over the five years to search for genetic mutations that cause the most common cancers, including breast, lung, colorectal, ovarian and prostate.

The head of the Cancer Genome Project, Mike Stratton, said it is the largest such study in the world. ¿Our goal is to identify the large numbers of new genes that are mutated in cancer and to measure the frequency of mutations of every major cancer.¿

The first phase of the project already has identified 80 potential cancer genes, and the research also is expected to lead to the identification of many new tumor suppressor genes.

Another project will use the techniques employed by the Cancer Genome Project to identify disease genes on the X chromosome. It initially will search for genes involved in nonspecific X-linked mental retardation.

There also will be a major effort to uncover the genetic basis of disorders such as diabetes, asthma and other allergies that have multiple genetic contributions. Common single nucleotide polymorphisms will be identified in all the protein-coding regions of the genome, and in collaboration with other groups, a map of common haplotyes in each gene will be produced, allowing the association between common haplotypes and disease to be determined.

The institute also will initiate studies in mouse and rodent models of disease to look for genes involved in the repair of DNA damage. Studies will continue in other model organisms including zebrafish, C. elegans and yeast.

The Wellcome Trust founded the Sanger Institute in 1992 and between then and 2000 provided #210 million to fund the sequencing of the human genome. The director of the trust, Mike Dexter, said Sanger has made, and will continue to make, an enormous contribution to the international Human Genome Project. ¿Allan Bradley will now lead the institute into the post-genomics era.¿

As well as doing its own research, the Sanger Institute will produce biological resources for the use of the wider scientific and medical communities.