NIH Proposes New Project and Database to Study Genetic Causes of Disease
Excerpt:
The National Institutes of Health announced on Wednesday a new research effort and free, public database about the genetic causes of common illnesses. The project, to be financed jointly by the NIH and biotechnology companies, will be designed to protect the publishing priority of researchers who put data in the repository.
The database, to be managed by the agency’s National Library of Medicine, would contain genetic data from thousands of patients with particular diseases, with details that could identify the patients removed. The NIH will require users of the database to wait nine months before publishing papers based on data that they did not deposit themselves, Elias A. Zerhouni, the agency’s director, said at a news conference. That policy is meant to prevent scientists who donate data from being scooped by competitors.
The database will allow researchers to comb through the DNA of ill and healthy people to explore whether the sick individuals have genes in common. The NIH will also pay to study how genes and environmental causes, like pollutants, combine to cause disease.
Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb 9, 2006 http://chronicle.com/daily/2006/02/2006020903n.htm (available to UI affiliates and subscribers only)
