Posted on August 13, 2012

Keck Foundation Awards $1 Million to University of Wisconsin-Madison for Genome Research

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to develop and test synthetic genome "foundries" that could revolutionize genome production.

Comprising a suite of computational tools, novel instrumentation, hardware fabrication languages, and precision-tailored small molecules, the proposed foundries would leapfrog the current approach to synthesizing genomes, which involves copying an existing genome using time-intensive and cost-prohibitive methods. Twenty scientists spent more than fifteen years making the first copy of a small microbial genome at a cost of $40 million.

The research will be led by faculty investigators Aseem Ansari, professor of biochemistry, who also is affiliated with the Genome Center of Wisconsin; Jennifer Reed, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering; Parmesh Ramanathan, professor of electrical and computer engineering; and professor of chemistry and genetics David Schwartz, who also is affiliated with the Nanoscale Science & Engineering Center. If successful, the new technology would allow academic and industrial scientists to create genome-aided designs that enable the exploration of a wide range of fundamental and applied problems.

"The complexity of genomic structure and our limited understanding of biological processes [require] the development of new methods in order to successfully model, and potentially re-design, a biological system," said Donna M. Paulnock, associate dean of the UW-Madison Graduate School. "This novel project is aimed at developing a new, multi-factorial approach to genome synthesis that would revolutionize this field. The willingness of the Keck Foundation to provide funding for this effort at such an early stage of development will be critical for the launch of this exciting interdisciplinary project and will provide a solid foundation for its success."