In this issue... 

Also available in pdf.

1997 Santa Fe Highlights 
Patrinos Address 
Joint Genome Institute (JGI) Comes of Age 
JGI Sequencing 
JGI Informatics 
JGI and Bermuda Quality Sequence 
Grants Awarded for JGI Collaboration 
JGI Sequencing Clones 
Sequencing Strategies,Tools 
Gene-Discovery Resources 
Sequencing at NIH NHGRI 
Functional Genomics 
Data Surge Challenges Informaticists 
Genome Annotation: Informatics Advances Needed for Age of Functional Genomics 
ELSI: Rapid Progress Accelerates Societal Impact of Genome Research 
1999 DOE HGP Meeting Set for California 

Human Genome Project Administration 
New 5-Year Goals, Project Midpoint 
DOE, NIH Discuss Informatics 
JASON Group Review 
BER Genome Instrumentation Research 

In the News 
Private-Sector Sequencing Plan 
Bang for the Buck: Government-Backed Research Underpins Potentially High Payoff Ventures 
Palmisano Joins DOE OBER 
DNA Files series to be on NPR 
HUGO Addresses Sample Collection 
Sickle Cell Mice May Lead to New Treatments 
TIGR Sequencing 6 More Microbes 
Tuberculosis Microbe Sequenced 
C. Elegans Sequencing Nears Finish 
HGMIS Website Restructured 
cDNA Cloning Workshop Identifies Critical Issues 
Survey Identifies Growing Need for Synchrotron Analyses 
NCGR Announcements 

Publications 
Report on Functional Consequences of Gene Expression 
Book on Tuskegee Conference 
Book Focuses on Biomarker Implications, Conference Proceedings 
Genome Analysis Protocol Handbook 

Software and the Internet 
Mouse Genome Informatics Release 2.0 
New System Identifies Polymorphisms 
DOE Supports Web Site for 1997 AAAS Genome Symposium 
Expressed Human Genome Database 

Funding 
DOE ELSI 
NIH NHGRI 
NHGRI Initiates Mailing List 
U.S. Genome Research Funding 

Meeting Calendars & Acronyms 
Genome and Biotechnology Meetings 
Training Courses and Workshops 
Acronyms 

HGN archives and subscriptions   
HGP Information home 

Gene-Discovery Resources

Over the years, the team led by Bento Soares (University of Iowa) has optimized methods for producing cDNA libraries, a technically challenging undertaking, and is continuing to produce libraries of the highest quality. Individual clones from these libraries have been arrayed at Livermore and distributed worldwide for characterization by the international I.M.A.G.E. (Integrated Molecular Analysis of Gene Expression) Consortium. To date, over 3 million I.M.A.G.E. clone replicas have been sent to more than 1000 laboratories worldwide; end users analyze the clones and return data on them (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbEST/index.html).

At the Santa Fe meeting, Soares described further progress in developing cDNA libraries and serial subtractive hybridization strategies (within and across different pooled libraries). These strategies are expected to minimize redundancy and identify cDNAs not yet represented in publicly available collections of human, mouse, and rat cDNAs.

Soares observed that finding novel cDNAs is increasingly challenging as researchers approach completion of human and mouse gene-discovery efforts. His group uses pools of I.M.A.G.E. clones, from which ESTs have been derived, as drivers in hybridizations with single or multiple normalized libraries, thus generating subtracted libraries enriched for new cDNAs. Sequence analysis of two subtracted libraries indicated a fourfold reduction in representation of the driver clones.

Charles Auffray (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) reviewed the goals of EURO-IMAGE, which include generating and sequencing a master set of unique full-length cDNA clones (based on I.M.A.G.E. Consortium resources), representing 3000 transcripts and 6 Mb of finished sequence. The European consortium is integrating its efforts with those in the United States and Japan. A meeting of I.M.A.G.E. participants is tentatively planned for March 1999 in Kazusa, Japan.

Auffray outlined some major challenges of systematic large-scale efforts to obtain the human "transcriptome" (the complete collection of all unique sequenced gene transcripts). He also discussed generating insights into gene function by exploring similarities and linking the information to the proteome (complete set of proteins; see article).

The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v9n3).