Gene Johnson Inc. is funded to develop the ACSR Sequence Data Base.
Press Release - July 2005
The AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR), primarily known as an NCI funded AIDS and cancer tissue resource, will expand its services to provide sequence data to its researchers that is produced from ACSR-associated research studies. HIV sequences produced from specific tissues are an enormously valuable asset to the research community, especially sequences that are well annotated, portable, and easily searched.
To achieve this, the ACSR is collaborating with the developers of HIVbase. HIVbase is an entirely new type of local HIV database that has been developed, to date, through NIH and NSF SBIR funding. Within HIVbase, the user can make a wide variety of data searches and also perform unique analysis dealing with sequence composition, charge, and identification of sequence motifs. The system is flexible to incorporate new annotations as they become essential. The developers at HIVbase will transfer this powerful search engine, currently developed for individual computers, to a secure ACSR website where researchers can query, examine, and analyze ACSR-associated data.
In the last year, Dr. Michael McGrath of the University of California at San Francisco and the chairman of the ACSR, received funding to produce up to 5000 full-length HIV sequences from brain tissue. Additionally, other on-going ACSR-associated pilot projects are producing sequences derived from HIV-induced lymphomas. The goals of these projects are to understand how macrophages, a type of white blood cell that ingests foreign material, influences disease. Macrophages are implicated as long-term HIV reservoirs which are untouched by current therapeutics. Additionally it is known that macrophage infiltration in the brain is associated with the onset of HIV-associated dementia. The sequences held within the new ACSR sequence database will contain information concerning cellular tropism, V3 loop charge, tissue source, along with searchable specimen source codes which will make it easier for scientists to quickly retrieve comprehensive datasets.
The collaboration of Gene Johnson Inc and the ACSR will provide researchers with a new HIV sequence data source and expand the ACSR's role as a resource for the scientific community.
Contacts:
Susanna L. Lamers at Gene Johnson Inc.:
susanna@genejohnson.net
Debra Garcia at the ACSR:
dgarcia@acsr.ucsf.edu
Other Links:
AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource
