( Modulating Nucleotide Size in DNA for...)NHGRI expands effort to revolutionize sequencing technologies

This group will design and synthesize modified nucleotides of different sizes, which can be incorporated into DNA. When passed through nanopores, the differences between these modified nucleotides will be easier to detect, producing clean sequencing data.

Bhubaneswar (Bud) Mishra, Ph.D., New York University, New York.
$585,000 (2 years)
"Haplotype Sequencing Via Single Molecule Hybridization"

Investigators from this group will hybridize short DNA probes to genomic DNA fragments to determine sequence information. In addition, they will use optical mapping to create restriction maps to help assemble the genome once it is sequenced. The group will then demonstrate how to combine the sequence and maps into distinct haplotype sequences.

Gregory L. Timp, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
$2.1 million (3 years)
"Sequencing a DNA Molecule Using a Synthetic Nanopore"

This group will explore the feasibility of sequencing a DNA molecule using a type of silicon integrated circuit. The circuit incorporates a nanopore mechanism with a molecular trap that forces the DNA molecule to oscillate back and forth between electrodes, measuring the electrical signal associated with each specific base.

Stephen W. Turner, Ph.D., Nanofluidics, Menlo Park, Calif.
$6.6 million (3 years)
"Real-Time Multiplex Single-Molecule DNA Sequencing"

This group will leverage their "zero-mode waveguide" technology to detect single nucleotides in real-time, as they are incorporated by a DNA polymerase into a growing DNA molecule. The ultimate goal is to create a real-time, multiplex single-molecule DNA sequencing system that produces sequence reads containing hundreds of thousands of nucleotides.

"$100,000 Genome" Grants

NHGRI's "Near-Term Development for Genome Sequencing" grants will support research aimed at sequencing a
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Source:NIH