Influenza Genome Sequencing Project

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The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) which is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is a collaborative effort designed to increase the genome knowledge base of influenza and help researchers understand how flu viruses evolve, spread and cause disease.

The sequencing effort, to be conducted in part by the NIAID Microbial Sequencing Center at TIGR, will reveal complete genetic blueprints of thousands of known human and avian influenza viruses. NIAID will rapidly make this sequence information publicly available through GenBank®, an international, searchable online database funded by NIH, and the NIAID Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC), a Web-accessible collection of genetic sequence information accompanied by data analysis tools.

By putting critical genome knowledge in the public domain, project leaders hope to provide researchers with the infrastructure needed to develop new vaccines, therapies and diagnostics, and improve understanding of the overall molecular evolution of influenza and other genetic factors that determine their virulence. Such knowledge could not only help mitigate the impact of annual influenza epidemics, but could also improve scientific knowledge of the emergence of pandemic flu viruses.

NIAID coordinates the Influenza Genome Sequencing Project, a collaborative effort to create complete genetic blueprints of known human and avian influenza viruses. As of December 7, 2005, a total of 559 influenza genome sequences have been made publicly available in GenBank by the NIAID project (35). In a separate but related contract awarded to researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, animal influenza viruses from wild birds, live bird markets, and pigs in Hong Kong and North America are being sequenced, and surveillance has expanded to include additional sites in Asia. The goal of these projects is to rapidly sequence influenza genomes derived from a variety of human and animal sources to enable scientists to understand how the viruses evolve, spread, and cause disease. The long-term goal is improving methods of prevention and treatment.

As of January 12 2006, 684 isolates have been completely sequenced from avian flu viruses that are endemic in human populations ("human flu"), such as some strains of H3N2.

The Influenza Genome Sequencing Project is currently being expanded to include avian flu viruses that are not endemic in human populations ("bird flu", "swine flu", etc.), such as H5N1. [Nature]

Further reading

• [Nature presents the initial results of this project]
• [National Health Museum's on-line science news page summarizes the findings presented in Nature on the initial results of this project.]

Sources