The European IMAGE Consortium

EURO-IMAGE is a shared-cost Research and Technology Development Program sponsored by the European Union BIOMED2 Program. The total budget for the program, which spans the period August 1997 to July 2000, is 5.6 million ECU, of which 2.8 million ECU are provided by the EU and the rest by the participating institutions.

General Objectives of the European IMAGE Consortium:

To generate a miniminal set of non redundant cDNA clones for most human gene transcripts and a master set of unique full-length cDNA clones representing 3,000 transcripts based upon the IMAGE Consortium resources (arrays of cDNA and CpG islands clones).
To characterize by DNA sequencing with high accuracy the complete sequence of the master set of 3,000 human gene transcripts (6 Mbases of finished sequence).
To obtain high resolution and comparative functional mapping localization in man and model organisms of 1,000 genes represented in the master set.
To develop the IMAGE Consortium Data Base to provide an easy access to an integrated view of the sequence, map and expression data generated.

Workplan
The European IMAGE Consortium will devote 20 percent of the resources to the assembly of the physical resources (cDNA and CpG island arrays characterized by end sequencing and fingerprinting, minimal sets of clones selected after comprehensive sequence, clone and functional clustering, master set of 3,000 full-length clones). These resources will be available throughout the European Union for the user community in both academy and industry. The Consortium will serve the future needs of the scientific community in the systematic identification of all human genes and their regulatory sequences by deciphering in an efficient and economic manner 6 Mb of complete, finished sequence for 3,000 transcripts of average size 2 kb: 50 percent of the resources will be devoted to the sequencing of full-length cDNAs and CpG islands selected by Consortium on the basis of their map position, similarity to known families or expression profiles. In order to ensure that advances in basic genetic knowledge is used to further enhance human health, the Consortium will seek to contribute to the identification of genes involved in human biology and diseases by correlating precise map location and phenotypic expression data, exploiting various comparative approaches for 1,000 of the genes represented in the master set: 10 percent of the resources will be devoted to high-resolution and comparative functional mapping in close interaction with the mapping consortia in order to obtain the most precise and evolutionary relevant map location. Last but not least, 20 percent of the resources will be devoted to the IMAGE Consortium Data Base. This will provide the community with up to date, integrated sequence, mapping and expression data related to the IMAGE consortium arrays, as they are collected by IMAGE Consortium members in Europe, the United States and Japan, and will help in sharing and harmonizing such data.

EURO-IMAGE Participants:

Partner 1- Coordinator -Charles Auffray
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
UPR 420
19, rue Guy Mquet
BP 8
94801 VILLEJUIF Cedex
FRANCE
Tel : 33 1 49 58 34 98 - Fax : 33 1 49 58 35 09
E-mail : auffray@infobiogen.fr
Secretary : obrasier@infobiogen.fr

Partner 2- Wilhelm Ansorge
European Molecular Biology Laboratories (EMBL)
Postfach 10.2209
Meyerhofstrasse 1
6900 HEIDELBERG
GERMANY
Tel : 49 6221 387 574 - Fax : 49 6221 387 306
E-mail : ansorge@embl-heidelberg.de
Hartmut Voss tel : 49 6221 387 474 E-mail : voss@embl-heidelberg.de

Partner 3- Andrea Ballabio
Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM)
Via Olgettina 58
20132 MILANO
ITALY
Tel : 39 221 560 206 - Fax : 39 221 560 220 E-mail : ballaba@dibit.hsr.it

Giuseppe Borsani
Tel : 39 221 560 1
E-mail : borsani@tigem.it

Partner 4 - Xavier Estivill
Institut de Recerca Oncologica (IRO)
Dept de Genetica Molecular
Hospital Duran i Reynals
Autovia de Castelldefels, km2.7
L'Hospitalet de Llobregat
BARCELONE 08907
SPAIN
Tel : 34 3 335 7152 - Fax : 34 3 263 22 51
E-mail : estivill@gm.iro.es

Melanie Pritchard
Tel : 34 3 335 7152
E-mail : pritchar@gm.iro.es

Partner 5 - Keith Gibson
Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre (HGMP)
Hinxton Hall
HINXTON, Cambridgeshire CB10 1RQ
UK
Tel : 44 1223 494 500 (or 514) - Fax : 44 1223 494 512
E-mail : kgibson@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk

Partner 6 - Hans Lehrach
Max-Planck-Institut fr Molekulare Genetik (MPI)
Ihnestrasse 73
Dahlem
14195 BERLIN
GERMANY
Tel : 49 30 84 131 221 - Fax : 49 30 84 131 380
E-mail : lehrach@mpimg-berlin-dahlem.mpg.de

John O'Brien
Tel : 49 30 84 13 12 37
E-mail : obrien@mpimg-berlin-dahlem.mpg.de

Mikael Wiles
E-mail : wiles@mpimg-berlin-dahlem.mpg.de

Partner 7 - Annemarie Poustka
Genomforschung und Bioinformatics
Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ)
Im Neuenheimer Feld 280
69120 HEIDELBERG
GERMANY
Tel : 49 6221 424 742 (or 46 46) - Fax : 49 6221 423 454
E-mail : a.poustka@dkfz-heidelberg.de

Stefan Wiemann
Tel : 49 6221 423 416
E-mail : S.Wiemann@DKFZ-Heidelberg.de

Partner 8 - Mathias Uhlen
Kungl Tekniska Hgskolan (KTH)
Royal Institute of Technology
Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology
Teknikringen 34
STOCKHOLM S 100 44
SWEDEN
Tel : 46 8 790 75 16 - Fax : 46 824 54 52
E-mail : mathias@biochem.kth.se

Joakim Lundeberg - Tel : 46 8 790 87 58 E-mail : joakiml@biochem.kth.se

Unite de Genetique Moleculaire
et Biologie du Developpement
CNRS UPR 420 - 7-19 rue Guy Moquet
BP 8 - 94801 VILLEJUIF CEDEX - FRANCE
Tel : 33 (0)1 49 58 34 98 - Fax : 33 (0)1 49 58 35 09
E-mail : auffray@infobiogen.fr